I, Tonya (***)

I, TONYA began with a promise and sputtered to a half about midway through. I admired a lot about this movie, especially that leading performance by Margot Robbie, but in the end all I can offer is tepid praise. The film feels inspired by David O Russell, with moving cameras, fluid editing, and a barrage of narration and inner monologue. What kind of story was director Craig Gillespie trying to tell here?

Most of you probably remember the story (or heard of it) regarding the 1994 Winter Olympics and the incident with Tonya Harding (Robbie) and Nancy Kerrigan. What began as arguably innocent blackmail and intimidation led to a girl's knee being injured with a retractable baton and Harding's skating career forever altered. Now it feels like a fun bit of trivia - a novelty story that makes the newspapers for its strange cast of characters and setting. Today even more so: the film presents the saga of Tonya Harding a an enigmatic mystery that few (if any) can grasp the deeper truth at hand.

The story, told in flashback throughout Tonya's life (standard for any biopic), and then leads to her competition in two Olympic games. What set her apart was her upbringing, raised among the trees and just a step above trailer trash. Her mother (the funny Allison Janney) is a wretched creature who pushes her daughter for no other reason than to see her fall off the metaphorical cliff. Her husband, Jeff (Sebastian Stan) is at first supportive of her ice skating but then resorts to routine beating and spousal abuse. First abused by mom and then her husband, Tonya remarks "maybe this is how people show their love."

The movie delves into the weird 1980's dynamics that led up to "the incident" that caught the world by surprise. About midway through the picture, I began to wonder to what end this movie was made? Harding is not vilified, but the story itself doesn't always feel substantial enough to create a 2 hour movie. At that midway mark, I began to realize that this film's only real goal was to show "the incident" and then everything else became filler by proxy. This is a surprisingly boring movie to watch at many parts, especially considering the levels of comedy, shocks, and vulgarities.

Margot Robbie is serviceable as Harding, and her transformation has been compared to someone like Charlize Theron in "Monster." Nonsense. Robbie gets the dialogue and appearance right, but the transformation doesn't really shock us until the close to the end, just before her Olympic performance, where she smears red blush on her face and smiles through the tears. Her vile mother, played with a lot of fun by Janney, is mostly one-note and doesn't often step outside the standards of cursing, smoking, and giving her daughter the evil eye.

The ice skating scenes are questionable for their use of facial replacement CGI (we understand that no actor could learn to skate so well for a film) which is more often than not jarring. I don't know. I, TONYA was funny for what it was, and then it slowly became repetitive, monotonous, and less exhilarating. Sometimes you watch a movie and feel like you are actively involved. You might lean forward with worry for the main characters, and hope they survive. I felt a curiously opposite emotion here. Few characters are likable, and fewer moments stick in my mind now having seen the movie. I wasn't joining with the story, I was simply witnessing something on screen.