I, Tonya

Margot Robbie shines in “I, Tonya,” but the movie often feels tone deaf in its comedic depiction of domestic violence amid Tonya Harding’s tabloid story.

i tonya posterIt’s a cliché to announce at the beginning of your movie “based on a true story,” but it’s almost become as much of a cliché to now be tongue-in-cheek about it. “Based on wildly contradictory interviews,” the opening to “I, Tonya” proclaims. It tells you two things about this movie: that it thinks it has a blank check to take as many liberties as it wants with Tonya Harding’s (Margot Robbie) tabloid story, and that this movie wants to have a sense of humor it maybe doesn’t deserve.

That’s because “I, Tonya” feels tone deaf in trying to meld the goofy, unreliable testimonies of Harding’s family and cadre of rednecks with a more sobering story about domestic abuse and mental torture at the hands of her husband and mother in her pursuit to be the best. It’s a movie about domestic abuse, but hey, let’s try and be funny and edgy too! Continue reading “I, Tonya”