62. I, Tonya; movie review

I, TONYA
Cert 15
119 mins
BBFC advice: Contains very strong language, scenes of domestic violence

Is it really nearly 25 years ago since the utterly bizarre knee-smashing incident which nearly knocked skater Nancy Kerrigan out of the Olympics and ended her rival Tonya Harding's career?
I remember Harding because she looked different to all of the other perfectly made-up stars of the ice rink.
As Craig Gillespie's I, Tonya evidences, there was good reason - she was from a completely different side of the tracks.
Margot Robbie has been rightly nominated for an Oscar for her wonderful portrayal of the erratic and yet brilliant skater.
However, I would put a bigger bet on Allison Janney. The manner in which she plays Harding's mum is off-the-wall stunning.
The style of Gillespie's movie really makes it stand out.
His cast act out interviews with key characters who explain events leading up to 'the incident' with Kerrigan.
However, these are not ordinary folk - and their accounts are contradictory and probably exaggerated.
Nevertheless, there is an attempt to tell Harding's story from the early days on the ice when her harridan mother would never give her praise and even refused to let her to take a break from practising to go to the toilet.
From then on, Harding becomes victim to the pushiest of unrepentant parents. Indeed, one would have assumed Janney had made her mother into a caricature if real footage of her were not shown at the end of the movie.
She is surely one of the harshest women ever to be portrayed on the big screen, complete with ridiculous haircuts and occasionally, a small bird on her shoulder.
Sebastian Stan plays Harding's boyfriend and then husband Jeff Gillooly who has a rather different account of their life (basically, he denies beating her up quite as viciously as she suggests).
As Bobby Cannavale, a reporter for a scandal magazine, says, this is a tale full of boobs - and by that, he doesn't mean real breasts but the standard of the human beings.
I, Tonya is a cracking movie - there is scarcely a moment when there is not drama or laughter or a scene which prompts the jaw to drop. And I was left wondering just how its makers achieved making it appear as if Robbie was really completing the spectacular ice routines .
But how much of it is true? As Harding says, enigmatically: "There's no such thing as truth, everyone has their own truth."

Reasons to watch: brilliant performances, superbly presented
Reasons to avoid: the machine-gun foul language

Laughs: five
Jumps: one
Vomit: yes
Nudity: yes
Overall rating: 9/10

Director's quote - Craig Gillespie: "I read Steven's (Rogers) script and it just crazy. It is and amazing wild ride, an incredibly fast-paced script and I just loved it and I thought she (Margot Robbie) would be brilliant for it.

The big question - Did she know?

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