One of the most difficult moves in professional figure skating competitions is a triple axel, which requires the skater to leap forward from the outside edge of one skate blade, rotate three and a half times in the air, and land on the back outside edge of the opposite foot. Only eight women have landed the jump in competition, and Tonya Harding is one of them. In director Craig Gillespie’s new biopic I, Tonya, Harding (Margot Robbie) reminisces about having been the first American woman to accomplish this feat in 1991. “Sorry,” she says, wiping away tears. “Nobody asks me about that anymore.”
Gillespie and Rogers include faux-documentary interviews that draw from the 2014 ESPN documentary The Price of Gold and more recent discussions Rogers conducted with the real Harding, Gillooly, and others. The characters in I, Tonya comment on the action as it happens, whether through re-created interviews, voice-over narration, or by directly addressing the viewer. Gillespie and Rogers provide details that look bad for Harding (a piece of paper the FBI receives has the phone number of Kerrigan’s practice arena on it, in Harding’s handwriting) and distort or omit some as well (Harding sued the U.S. Olympic Committee to keep her on the team; in the film, she says they kept her for the ratings).
Directed by Craig Gillespie
