Allison Janney tears up the screen in I, Tonya, playing one hell of a mother

MOVIES

BY MARY KAYE SCHILLING

BIRD’S EYE VIEW Janney as LaVona Golden, Tonya Harding’s mother, with parakeet co-star Little Man.

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THE BLACK COMEDY I, TONYA, ABOUT THE onetime champion figure skater Tonya Harding, is the cinematic definition of “You don’t know whether to laugh or cry.” The screenwriter, Steven Rogers, hopes “you’ll do a little of both.” And maybe both at once, sometimes through gritted teeth. The film, which doesn’t whitewash Harding, attempts a kind of redemption. At the very least, it gives you perspective: Tonya Harding never had a chance.

She is best remembered, of course, for figure skating’s most riveting tabloid moment: The kneecapping of Harding’s chief rival, Nancy Kerrigan. The media did such a good job of reducing Harding vs. Kerrigan to White Trash vs. Princess that many continue to misremember Harding as the assailant. The story, as often happens, is more layered than the headlines implied.

Rogers, who grew up in Harding’s home state of Washington, spent weeks interviewing the former athlete (banished from the sport for life in 1994) and her ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly. It was Gillooly’s delusional best friend, Shawn Eckhardt—Harding’s purported bodyguard and a self-described CIA operative—who hatched the cracked plan to prevent Kerrigan from competing at the 1994 Olympics. (She recovered in time to win a silver medal.)