Margot Robbie’s Tonya Harding cuts a tragic figure.
She’s angry, self-pitying and narcissistic but you cannot but help to feel incredible compassion for her.
Her mother LaVona Golden, played brilliantly by Alison Janney, is a chain-smoking, fur-coat wearing matriarch who presides over her daughter with abusive tough love, measured out in clips over the ears.
The relationship between mother and daughter is incredibly volatile and as the movie portends, undoubtedly shaped Harding’s personality, tenacity and dysfunction in equal measure.
The film tells the story of Harding’s life leading up to “the incident” executed on Nancy Kerrigan in mock documentary style.
Harding, with early 90s-style bangs and frizzy, blonde hair, reflects on her life in front of the camera and you become aware that she’s never been able to let go of the past and probably never will.
It’s a well-executed technique to retell what is an infamous storyline.
Even when the viewer is cast into Harding’s history, Robbie will periodically turn to the camera with an intimate quip.
She’s funny, shrewd and the commentary is an illuminating insight into Harding’s character.
It’s a device that reminds us this is a film dedicated to Harding’s version of events.
The film is darkly funny, coloured by abusive relationships and domestic violence.
Harding is ferocious on the ice: with her fellow competitors, her coaches, the judges who she believes are against her, and most of all, with herself.
Harding’s working-class background sees her outside the skating establishment and she harbours a deep suspicion for authority, borne out of her own experiences.
In a life that seems to be a feat of endurance, she only ever seems happy on the ice.
And the film does a brilliant job of capturing the sheer joy of Harding finally triumphing when she lands the triple axle jump and becomes the first American woman to do so.
And when it all unravels, it is powerful to witness the inevitable crash that overwhelms Harding on the world stage at the Olympics.
Robbie is excellent in this role and deserves her Oscar nomination.
She is supported by a stand-out cast, Janney is absolutely fantastic and won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Golden.
She’s also been nominated for an Oscar for best performance in a supporting role.
Harding’s ex-husband Jeff Gillooly, played by Sebastian Stan, gives a really strong performance, too.
It’s not until the final credits where you see Harding skating and watch real-life interviews of Golden, bodyguard Shawn (Paul Walter Hauser) and Gillooly that you truly appreciate just how brilliant both the casting and the acting are.
The film is set to a fantastic suite of 1980s hits.
There’s sheer hilarity in the hired hitmen, as they set out to rough-up Nancy Kerrigan to the booming backdrop of Laura Brannigan and Gloria.
The FBI investigation following the incident, and the sheer braggadocio of small-time crook Shawn - who orchestrated the hit under Gillooly’s garbled instructions - is truly pathetic and hilarious in equal measure.
Although I think most would treat Harding’s claim to know little about the hit on Nancy Kerrigan with a degree of suspicion, the film is a powerful reminder of the viciousness of the news cycle and court of public opinion.