Misplaced comedy

Image copyright Clubhouse Pictures / LuckyChap Entertainment

Fancy a comedy about assault, child abuse and spousal beatings, all scored to your favorite classic rock tunes from the ‘70s and ‘80s? Then I, Tonya (1 ¾ stars on 0-5 scale) is your film.

Directed by Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl, Million Dollar Arm) and written by Steven Rogers, this is a comedic biopic about the life of Tonya Harding, and her and her ex-husband’s involvement in a plot to attack Nancy Kerrigan back in the early 1990s. All style over substance, the film is ill conceived, tonally challenged and at times even mean-spirited. Yes, there is dark, even absurd comedy to be found in the subject, but the end result – despite a solid performance by Margot Robbie as Harding and some nifty (digitally altered) skating scenes – is distasteful, disrespectful and just plain wrong for what is ultimately a very sad story.

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