2017 biopic
Rating: 14/20
Plot: Tonya Harding's rise and fall in the wild world of competitive figure skating.
This was a lot of fun, but I'm just not sure how much fun I should be having while watching a female human being being verbally and/or physically abused. At times, director Craig Gillespie doesn't effectively balance the drama and the comedy. Poor Tonya Harding's getting slapped around one moment, and a few seconds later, we're expected to laugh it up while one of these dumb characters is doing yet another dumb thing.
Margot Robbie, through no fault of her own, is also a little uneven, but when she's great, she's really great. And her head does a really great job when it's cut and pasted onto a real skater's body in scenes. Robbie nails the tragic comedy of this character, and she also captures the comedic tragedy of Harding. There's a very fine line between poking fun at a figure who's been the butt of jokes for 30 years and having fun with that figure's history, and Robbie plays it just about perfectly most of the time. There's a scene where she's looking into a mirror and showing off shades of about fifteen different emotions that is just terrific.
The others aren't as effective. Allison Janney might not be far off as Harding's overly demanding and abusive mother, but the character is almost too preposterous to believe can actually exist. She seems like she's pulled from a Saturday Night Live sketch or something. Of course, an interview snippet with the actual mother makes it seem like a person that preposterous actually can exist. The same goes with Gillooly's pal Shawn Eckardt, played by Paul Walter Hauser. The character in the movie is funny, but he could have been played by any of those fat cast members on Saturday Night Live. I thought Sebastian Stan was good as Gillooly.
Gillooly is still a name that makes me laugh.
I'm sure there are documentaries out there that are also capable of creating sympathy for Harding as they paint her as a victim. This probably does it more effervescently. I could have done with a little less 4th-wall-breaking and winks at the audience as that kind of stuff, though cute, added to the imbalance.
Allison Janney took the Best Supporting Actress, I believe, because The Academy thought maybe she was overdue. I'm going over to your Lady Bird post in a bit, and I'll be raving about Laurie Metcalf's job and how she should have gotten it.
ReplyDeleteYou totally nailed it with your take. I was talking with Audrey as we watched and making comments about if we should be laughing at this domestic violence? When is it humorous and when is it tragic?
I actually think the movie did too much to make her empathetic. I've seen lots of interviews with the real Tonya, and she's nasty. I'm not even saying it's all her fault because of her environment, but there's one line that I think was important. Surrounded by paparazzi, heading to the Olympics with Nancy Kerrigan, a million microphones and a flurry of flashing lights, Tonya faces stardom and presents herself as a "famous person". When asked how she plans to do at the Olympics, she says that she's confident going up against Nancy and that she will "kick her butt". This line is important on how it is delivered.
REAL LIFE:
With what seems like over-confidant, prideful, and arrogant delivery, the real Tonya says in a middle school girl tone, "and I'm gonna kick her butt."
THE MOVIE:
With bashfulness, and a little giggle in her smile, Margot Robbie says in a friendly school girl tone, "and I'm gonna *sustained giggle* kick her butt"
I just feel like it took out some of the ownership of what she was so vilified.
Still, Margot deserved her nomination as she made this story watchable for Hollywood. She got all the emotions in there and tried to be as human as possible with such a over-the-top story.
Speaking of over the top, Janney and the crew do seem inhuman.
I agree about Metcalf/Janney for sure!
ReplyDeleteThe further away from when I saw this, the less I like it actually. It was my brother-in-law Cory's favorite movie from last year. I liked it less when I wrote about it than I did when I was walking out of the theater and even less now. If it was a Coen Brothers original story, I think I could have almost liked it (though they would have handled the spousal abuse a little better, I believe), but knowing it's a real story just makes that inconsistent tone seem like more of a problem.
But yes, Robbie was really really good.