Film Review - I, Tonya (2018)

I, Tonya is based off of the true story of Tonya Harding the first woman in America to do a triple axel in ice skating Margot Robbie both stars as Tonya and produced this movie we see her become a skating champion as well as her turbulent marriage to Geoff (Sebastian Stan) as well as the infamous incident involving Nancy Kerrigan that saw her whole life turned upside down.

I was looking forward to this movie as the preview I saw looked good and I like Ms Robbie very much though its more fair to say I’ve loved her since Wolf of Wall Street in 2014 but sadly my first attempt to see this movie was derailed due to print issues with my daily cinema but with all of that out of the way I finally got my chance but could it deliver the goods or just be the big disappointment of 2018?

Well actually I didn’t mind it I wouldn’t say it was a great film or anything but it was one I found fun and entertaining to watch and first off that is due to the great performances in this movie Robbie showcases great work and though she takes some time to get into the groove of the role after a while you find it hard to take your eyes off her Alison Janney is also very good here and its easy to see why she will most likely win the Academy Award as she comes across as a real fire bird here.

And also Sebastian Stan is really really good here and was probably my favourite performance in the whole film as he got to show here that there is more to him than just being the Winter Soldier he can be a great actor with the right role and the right guidance I hope he does more work like this one in the future.

And also the film has a very nice jukebox soundtrack with tracks like Never Break the Chain among others though I don’t really remember them all that much to be honest.

But as good as the soundtrack and performances are the movie’s script has some pretty jarring tonal issues on the one hand its detailing the rough background Tonya went through and the firestorm of publicity that came after the incident with Nancy to once again having the films lead characters climb Mt. Bedsheets and swear Shit, Fuck and Cnut every chance they get and much like in 3 Billboards it felt a little out of place and after a while it began to sour my overall view of the movie and I love swearing in movies but here much like in 3 Billboards it got a bit much.

Now comes the million dollar question that I’m sure some will be thinking because lord knows I’ve thought of it all evening:

Would I have liked the film more if I hadn’t seen it in the way that I have.

Well yes I would have I would’ve said that it was a fun and entertaining movie that told an interesting story that I didn’t know much about as I was only 7/8 years old when it happened along with praising its performances and soundtrack though I still would have had issues with its tone.

And because of that I am going to do separate scores for this movie:

Non Cancelled Session: 3 out of 5.

The Way things Went: 2 and a half out of 5.