Allison Janney’s dreams of being an Olympic figure skater were shattered when she fell through a plate-glass window during her senior year of high school. Now, a few decades later, she returns to the rink for I, Tonya, Craig Gillespie’s take—part comedic drama, part redemption story—on disgraced U.S. figure skater Tonya Harding.
Janney plays LaVona Golden, the abusive, chain-smoking mother to Tonya (Margot Robbie), whose highly publicized (and debated) involvement in a 1994 attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan made her name a punch line and got her banned from the sport. LaVona, whose characterization is based on interviews the real-life Harding and her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly gave for the movie, is crude, cruel and cutting—in one scene, she chucks a steak knife at her daughter. In another, she tells her,…