It’s All In The Eyes
Warning: some spoilers from I, Tonya!
This is meant to be read as a continuation of John Heffernan’s review of “I, Tonya,” found directly before this post. Heffernan comments on how Margot Robbie portrays so many different emotions and truly proves herself as an actress in this film, and this piece is meant to comment on how she accomplishes this.
A very prominent actress in Hollywood right now is Margot Robbie. She is very popular at the present moment because of her new movie “I, Tonya,” which was nominated for three Golden Globes, two Academy Awards, and two SAG Awards. It is still currently in theatres, but so far as made about 21.6 million dollars. In this movie, Robbie played the main character, Tonya Harding. This was a difficult role to play; she had to be able to show a redneck, hard-shell persona while also portraying how her rough home life had taken a toll on her mental health. I truly felt Tonya’s emotions during the film, especially toward the end when Robbie begs the court not to take skating away from her because it is all she’s ever known.
Robbie is admired so much because of her versatility. Within I, Tonya, she plays different elements of the same person: a person who doesn’t care and a person who cares too much, a person who does not speak up and a person who won’t stop speaking out, a person who is so loved but not by the people who matter. She uses her big eyes to show these contrasting emotions. Her happy smile while she laughs with her husband is a very different smile from when she stares at herself in the mirror behind the Olympic rink and cries. When she becomes the first figure skater to land a triple axle, her eyes squint and her smile is bright. When she smiles for an audience knowing that she is hated by the judges and by the media, her eyes are wide and her smile is lopsided. Even in “Suicide Squad” where she plays Harley Quinn, she uses wide eyes to emphasize how crazy she truly is, whereas when they are telling about a time when she acted like an educated psychotherapist her eyes are calm but loving. She truly uses her eyes to portray strong emotions.