A few weeks ago I made this post and this page with the intention of crossing off a bunch of movies that are regarded as “must see’s”. I was aiming for one film a week, but thus far havent watched anything on that list. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been watching any movies, some I’ve seen before (in the case of my kids current favourites, Trolls, Frozen, My Little Pony: The Movie, many, many times) but I have been trying to watch stuff I’ve not seen before, so far thats been Only The Brave, Deepwater Horizon, Hacksaw Ridge, I, Tonya and The Greatest Showman. I may make posts on each of those, but for now I’m wanting to discuss I, Tonya.
For a start, I’m not entirely sure I would have chosen to watch this, but my other half wanted to watch it (she likes watching the Figure Skating whenever the Winter Olympics takes place) so thats what we watched earlier today. Now its not really family friendly, it depicts scenes of domestic violence and a good chunk of swearing in it, but our younger two were mostly distracted playing other things and only really gave the film any attention when any skating was actually happening (at which point they pretended to skate around the lounge, throwing in a few of their own dance moves, which was really sweet). But even though I probably wouldnt have chosen to watch it, I normally really enjoy films with a framework involving some kind of sport, even if its not a sport I follow (which to be honest at this point is only really football and Formula One) and this was no different.
Once it was explained to me what the film was about (the American figure skater Tonya Harding and ultimately her involvement, or lack of, in the assault of fellow competitor Nancy Carrigan) I knew what I needed to going into it having watched ESPN’s excellent 30 for 30: The Price of Gold (and to any documentary or sports fans I’d really reccomend watching any or all of these, I binged watch a whole load on Netflix a few years back) so knew the majority of the people involved so was able to enjoy the performances. However I did find it challenging watching Margot Robbie play Tonya Harding, not so much later on (even though I was convinced I was watching Jaime Pressly in My Name Is Earl at times) because Hollywood has this really weird habit of having actresses play characters that are either much younger than themselves (Robbie takes over the reigns of Harding when shes in her mid-teens, Robbie is 27) or older than themselves, forcing unfair appearance expectations on women both young and old. Even so, Robbies performance was indeed excellent, particularly in clips where shes talking directly to the camera in a documentary like manner or in scenes where shes with her (poisonous and abusive) on-screen Mother, played by Allison Janney (who, like her co-star, has been nominated for an Oscar).
Wether or not you know the background to the film, I definetly reccomend giving a watch.
Bar Harukiya 