Film Review: Margot Robbie in ‘I, Tonya’ Can’t Stick the Landing

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CHICAGO – We have arrived at point where yesterday’s trash TV has become today’s critical darling of the film festival circuit. As the trailers proclaim, “I, Tonya” desperately wants to be the “‘Goodfellas’ of Figure Skating,” but one of the biggest problems I had is that it’s just trying too hard.

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 3.0/5.0
Rating: 3.0/5.0

We can see the film straining for critical respectability, while taking a time warp back to the halcyon days of 1994 and the infamous Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan knee clubbing incident. Actress Margot Robbie, in a blatant “give me an Oscar nomination” performance, stars as Tonya Harding, who was widely derided as trailer trash who wandered onto the ice rink.

Harding was the figure skater with superior technical skills, but had neither the look nor the attitude to live up to the skating world’s ideas of a winner. Robbie, to her credit, doesn’t try to soften any of Harding’s rough edges, but there’s an air of phoniness about the entire enterprise. Robbie is decked out in bleached blond hairdo and denim jacket, but that’s all it is, window dressing… she can’t quite hide the fact that she’s a gorgeous movie star pretending to be the salt of the earth.

”I, Tonya” continues it’s nationwide release in Chicago on December 22nd. See local listings for theaters and show times. Featuring Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney, Bobby Cannavale and Caitlin Carver. Screenplay by Steven Rogers. Directed by Craig Gillespie. Rated “R”

StarContinue reading for Spike Walter’s full review of “I, Tonya”

Tonya1
Margot Robbie as the Title Character in ‘I, Tonya’
Photo credit: Neon

StarContinue reading for Spike Walter’s full review of “I, Tonya”

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