Boy, do I have a completely different opinion of Tonya Harding after seeing Craig Gillespie’s (Lars and the Real Girl, The Finest Hours) I, Tonya. The movie revolves around the 1994 Winter Olympics when her main competition for a gold medal that year (Nancy Kerrigan) had her knee taken out after a 1993 skating session in Detroit, MI, by someone on Harding’s payroll. Kerrigan’s recorded screams of “Why?! Why?!” that were then shown in media outlets worldwide still resonate in our heads. Harding became the punchline of every late-night talk show host’s monologue. Unlike any other time in history, we had a physical, life-altering altercation between two of the best competitors in their sport. Even without all the facts, we identified Kerrigan as the protagonist and Harding as the antagonist. And rightfully so. However, it is made clear from the film’s first scene that what we were about to see was a “mostly true, wildly contradictory” account of what happened. Yes, Gillespie only gave us one side of the story. Still, it’s a side that makes us think of Harding as an extremely sympathetic, misinterpreted, and even likable character who was, perhaps, as much a victim as Kerrigan was. I have a newfound affinity towards Harding that I hadn’t had in the 24 years since the nearly 25 years since the incident happened.

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