It is from this perspective I watched I, Tonya, only knowing these three things: Tonya Harding was once one of America's champion skaters, she was thought to be associated with Kerrigan incident, and it was still ambiguous to this day as to what really happened. And after watching the film, it is clear that there is really no straight answer to be given.

The film is based on interviews with Tonya Harding and Jeff Gillooly themselves, re-enacted by the film's fictional Tonya (Margot Robbie) and Jeff (Sebastian Stan), and each, of course, provided contradictory versions of what went down. It is this sentiment of contradiction that sets the tone of the movie, and ultimately it's the biting comedic approach that allows the film to be successful, avoiding the melodramatic biopic cliché. The emphasis on the class struggle Tonya faced in the skating world was another important theme of the film--in society's eyes, she was already set up for failure. 

It shifts back and forth between the different narratives, yet does so in an immaculately seamless way that never makes the viewer feel lost--each narrative is ultimately contributing to a much bigger story. This approach also involved frequent breakings of the fourth wall, allowing characters to pipe in with their two cents for you to keep in mind before you took in the following scene. This was a risky move. It could have easily proven to be ineffective, and perhaps there were some that felt this way, but I thought it worked for this film. In particular, I think of that stunning and heartbreaking scene where Tonya stares directly into the camera as if it were a mirror and applies her makeup, and fails to hold back her tears. She refuses to break eye contact the entire time, and the viewer has no choice but to be confronted with the full force of her emotional turmoil, and it's slightly uncomfortable, but in the best way possible.

Margot Robbie's astounding portrayal of Tonya Harding hits all the right tonal cues, and is reason enough to watch the film. I can practically confirm an Oscar nomination is coming her way. The film is also aided by Sebastian Stan's performance of Jeff Gillooly and the wonderful Allison Janney as LaVona Harding, Tonya's hilariously shameless and often emotionally harsh mother (another likely Oscar nom). The movie would also not be what it is without the direction of Craig Gillespie and the screenplay by Steven Rogers, which deserve to be mentioned here.

No matter how you feel about Tonya Harding, it is hard not to have sympathy for her situation in the film. At the end of the day, she's just a person, and having the entire world hate you is inevitably going to hurt. When she stands before the judge at the end of the film and pleads her case, it's pretty hard to deny the validity of how she feels and what she was asking for--especially considering the minimality of the punishments for everyone else involved.

I, Tonya reminds us of the relentless chain reaction that arises from the decisions we make. When we refuse to hear someone else's truth, it has a negative impact, even if it's only a little one. So, imagine if the entire world refused to hear your truth. Tonya's story is one we can all learn from. She's only human, and after all, so are we.