Tonya Harding's belated moment to shine

The agony and the ecstasy of the offbeat biopic I, Tonya

Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding.
(Image credit: Courtesy of NEON)

Throughout the offbeat biopic I, Tonya, the infamous Olympic skater Tonya Harding is seen getting smacked around. Her mother LaVona (played with gusto by the multi-Emmy-winning Allison Janney) beats her as a perverse form of motivation. Her husband Jeff Gillooly (well-played by an almost unrecognizable Sebastian Stan) wallops her as a way to show he cares, because she's been raised to expect her loved ones to knock her senseless. At one point early in the film, Harding looks into the camera ruefully, talking about how often she's been slapped, kicked, punched, and tugged in her life.

Then she shakes her head and says, "Nancy gets hit one time …"

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Noel Murray

Noel Murray is a freelance writer, living in Arkansas with his wife and two kids. He was one of the co-founders of the late, lamented movie/culture website The Dissolve, and his articles about film, TV, music, and comics currently appear regularly in The A.V. Club, Rolling Stone, Vulture, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times.