I, Tonya

I am obsessed with Tonya Harding right now. After I saw her at the Golden Globes, I was shocked and thought, "What the heck is she doing there?". I'd seen previews of the upcoming movie and was eager to see it because I remember the whole incident really well and was obsessed with it back in 1994. Then I noticed several documentaries on TV with the real Tonya being interviewed and I watched all three of them.  I read interviews with the stars from I, Tonya and realized nobody really knows what the truth is about the 1994 Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan incident. Really? I remember it very well and didn't know there was any question. Then I wondered if Hollywood was just sympathizing with her because of her rough upbringing so I had to see the movie. 

To make a long story short, Tonya Harding was born in Portland, Oregon into an impoverished and abusive household with her chain-smoking mother, LaVona Golden, played sensationally by Allison Janney.  Tonya reached athletic success becoming the first American woman to land a triple axel in skating competition, only to lose everything after some very bad decisions, like marrying Jeff Gillooly, her abusive husband. He orchestrated a plot to club Tonya's competitor, Nancy Kerrigan, in the kneecaps. He incriminated Tonya Harding by confessing that she was also in on the plot and she was eventually stripped from all her titles and banned from ever skating again.  She went to the Olympics twice, in 1992 and 1994.  (That was when they split the summer and winter Olympics from being the same year so Tonya was lucky she only had to wait two years instead of four years.)  We lived in Seattle at the time so it was a fairly local news story to us which made it even more mesmerizing. We also love the Olympics and are devoted spectators, so again, we remember the whole Tonya Harding incident very well.   Being that she never had much money, she took her skating lessons at a local public skating rink at shopping mall in Portland called the Lloyd Center.  Bruce and I are still fascinated with Lloyd Center to this day because of Tonya Harding. In fact, Bruce texted me this photo a couple of weeks ago because he was at a trade show in Portland and he knew I'd get a kick out of seeing the Lloyd Center.  This is where it all started. 

Now that Tonya Harding is popular again because of the movie, I have learned more about her and the whole back-story.  Like I said before, I've read a lot of the articles that have come out and watched interviews and now have seen the movie.  For me, the bottom line is that my mind has not changed about her.  I think she is a compulsive lair to the point that I honestly don't think she knows what the truth is anymore because she has been lying about it for so many years. I think she participated in the plot even though she still contends that she knew nothing about it.  In an ABC interview that aired recently, she admitted that she had overheard Gillooly and his pals discussing "taking out" someone two months before the incident.  She claims she didn't know who that "someone" was and after Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed, she still couldn't put 2 and 2 together. Really? I find that hard to believe.  Also, a note was found in her handwriting with the name of the ice arena where Nancy Kerrigan practiced.  The plot was initially planned to "take her out" after one of her practices at that ice arena. The really infuriating thing about it, is that now she wants an apology from the media for making her look like such a bad person. Again, really?  She wants her chance to tell her side of the story, but her side of the story keeps changing with all her lies so there is no "her side of the story".  Thus, nobody really knows the truth. 

The real Tonya Harding loves the movie. She thinks it's right on, particularly about her mother who is portrayed as an absolute monster. Her mother was so abusive and mean in this movie (Allison Janney is nominated for best supporting actress) that you start to think, "O.K., I get it. That's why Tonya is the way she is". But is that really the reason? In real life, her coaches worked really hard to shape Tonya into a lady-like figure; enrolling her into ballet classes, taking her shopping for tasteful clothes, teaching her manners. She had a lot of good people as role models, too. But Tonya confesses that she liked just being Tonya, "that's just who I am". In her recent interviews, she doesn't appear to have changed much at all. She's still quite rough around the edges and says inappropriate things. Her interviews just make me cringe. 

So now you know what I think of Tonya Harding. How about the movie? Well, I liked the movie which is nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Best Actress and Best Film Editing. I really LOVED Allison Janney in this movie. I think she should win the Oscar. She was the real mother-from-hell and from what I've seen from interviews of the real LaVona Golden, Allison Janney was spot on. Of course, Lavona Golden denies she abused Tonya as much as the movie portrays, but again, who knows? The movie was based on what Tonya Harding has stated.  It does tend to lean more to Tonya's side of the story which I don't believe, so yes, it did try to make you sympathize for her.   

I will say that the movie was hard to watch sometimes because of all the physical abuse going on between Tonya, her mother, and Gillooly. Tonya even had a half-brother living with them at one point who sexually assaulted her when she was 15. Tonya was tough and often won the fights but you get a very visual account of her upbringing and it was brutal. Margot Robbie, who played Tonya, also is nominated for an Academy Award. I had a harder time envisioning her as Tonya Harding because she is just so naturally beautiful. They tried to make her up as tough with teased hair and bad 90's clothing, but she is just too gorgeous, really. Too gorgeous for Tonya Harding, in my opinion. But she played the role really well and had Tonya's mannerisms and speaking voice perfectly. I'm into Tonya Harding but if you don't remember the incident in 1994, this movie is a good mockumentary. It's a story that is actually quite hard to believe if you weren't there in 1994. How the events unfolded with all the characters involved is even harder to believe. But you can' t make this stuff up. There was a lot of reaction from the audience in the theater during the movie, too. Lots of groaning, sighing, and even laugher. Yes, laughter. The characters are just so unbelievable, even Tonya, you can't help but to just laugh during much of it. I did not leave the movie feeling sympathetic towards Tonya at all. I was even a little confused at parts of it like when they made it look like all the blame was aimed at the bodyguard, Shawn Eckhardt. They made it seem as if Tonya and Gillooly knew nothing of the attack other than it might involve some threatening letters. I'd never heard that version of the story before. It wasn't enough for me to feel sympathy toward her.  I, Sylvia, still believe she's completely guilty. 

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