Figure skating is a sport of individuality and grace. Even though many sports evolve around the aspects of a team, figure skating revolves around that athlete alone. A movie that portrayed this was I, Tonya, which was directed by Craig Gillespie. 

This story revolves around the upbringing and struggles that Tonya Harding faces throughout her fascinating figure skating career. However, one portion that is the main vocal point throughout the movie is the 1994 assault of her rival, Nancy Kerrigan. The assault, which happened at the United States Figure Skating Championships, would leave the figure skating community in shock and question who was the cause of this and if Harding was involved. 

I, Tonya, portrayed the situation well with the constant fighting with Harding’s then-husband, Jeff Gillooly, the battles of being too out of the box for the figure skating community, and the constant need to prove others wrong.

For me, her upbringing and how there was this need for Harding to prove her mother wrong were quite intriguing. There was this also childish mindset as she grew up to make her mother proud of her no matter the cost. 

However, one aspect of this movie that left me in question was how reliable it was. 

Throughout the movie, Harding, in a way, makes it clear that she did not have much involvement with the whole situation. It was expressed that it was orchestrated by her husband with the help of her bodyguard and an associate. 

It does seem suspicious to me that she states that she had no involvement with the actual assault but just the aftermath of covering up the whole event. Like how does she have no idea whatsoever about something that revolves around the fact to give her an upper hand in not only the United States Figure Skating Championship but the Olympics that are taking place in the months following? Also, it’s not someone that she might not know or someone that isn’t close but her own husband. 

Even with this thought that was constantly running through my head both during and after the movie, another part that was intriguing to me was where this information came from. When credited, it states that it was based on “contradictory” and “totally true” interviews from both Harding and her husband. This truly leaves the viewers in a dilemma about how accurate this movie really is. 

I believe that this movie was a way for Harding to portray to the world that she wasn’t involved and a last fight for the figure skating community to look at her in a relatively positive way. I am not taking away from her accomplishments and advancements that she made for both United States figure skating and all of women’s figure skating, but it was just done extremely poorly due to the situation as a whole. Harding was not only proven to be part of the aftermath but also somewhat showed in the movie that she was actually involved, even if that was never her intention. 

Overall, the movie’s directing, storyline, and acting were beautifully done, with Margot Robbie (Tonya Harding) and Sebastian Stan (Jeff Gillooly) portraying these people in a spectacular way. But the actual storyline as a whole left me to question how reliable this movie is and whether we will ever know if Harding was actually a part of the assault against her biggest rival, Nancy Kerrigan.