Movie: Luckiest Girl Alive (2022) Caution Spoiler Alert

 Luckiest Girl Alive

Came out; 2022

Time; 1 hour 53 Minutes

Watched: Netflix

Rated: R for violent content, rape, sexual material, language throughout and teen substance use

IMDB Rating; 6.4/10

Caution; Spoiler Alert

Staring.

Mila Kunis as Ani Fanelli

Chiara Aurelia as Young Ani

Finn Wittrock as Luke Harrison

Connie Britton as Dina

Scott McNairy as Andrew Larson

Justine Lupe as Nell Rutherford

Dalmer Abuzeid as Aaron Wickersham

Alex Barone as Dean Barton

Story Line.

A sharp-tongued New Yorker appears to have it all: a sought-after position at a glossy magazine, a killer wardrobe, and a dream Nantucket wedding on the horizon. But when the director of a crime documentary invites her to tell her side of the shocking incident that took place when she was a teenager at the prestigious Brentley School, Ani is forced to confront a dark truth that threatens to unravel her meticulously crafted life

Thoughts:

This movie did a very good job and showing what teenagers go through when things like this happen.

The movie itself was really good, going to great detail about why Ani was the way she was. What I don't understand is why she broke up with her fiancé.

The acting was great, the flashback was well placed and the story telling was believable.

CAUTION; Spoiler Alert

In 2015, 38-year-old TifAni "Ani" Fanelli (Mila Kunis), a respected New York women's magazine editor, appears to have a picture-perfect life. Ani prepares to marry her boyfriend, Luke Harrison (Finn Wittrock). Luke is educated, good looking, athletic and comes from money. Ani pretends to be all perfect in front of Luke, but she is a wild person on the inside. She loves pizza and eating with her hands. She hides this side of her from Luke. Nell (Justine Lupe) is Ani's friend. Ani has recurring memories of an incident that happened before in life. She is afraid of claustrophobia, knives and drunk guys.

At her magazine, Ani is made to write trashy pieces to keep the lights on, while other writers get the topics with gravitas. Her boss Lolo (Jennifer Beals) has promised her to take her to New York Times as senior editor, when she switches jobs. Ani meets with Aaron Wickersham (Dalmar Abuzeid), a documentary director who wants to make a short film about the school shooting she survived as a teenager. He informs her that a former classmate, Dean Barton (Alex Barone), who went on to become a successful writer (and is releasing a new book shortly and knows that the documentary will help promote his new book) and advocate for gun control, has agreed to take part. Ani declines to be involved. She was the survivor of the deadliest private school shooting incident in history. Dean says that Ani was part of the shooting, but Ani has refused to answer questions or provide clarifications of any kind. Aaron promises that his work will not cause any further harm to Ani or her reputation, but she still refuses.

Luke informs Ani that his firm has offered him an opportunity to move to London and suggests Ani can take an MFA program there to allow her to write for herself. She agrees, despite having hopes of someday working at The New York Times. Ani goes for her wedding dress fitting and is angry that her mother Dina finds faults in her near perfect dress. Nell wants Ani to go on the documentary with Aaron and expose Dean and his bucket of lies. Ani says she needs to be bullet proof if she decides to take Dean on. This is why she needs the NYT gig, credibility. Later that week, Ani's boss tells her that they both have a job at the New York Times. They later have dinner with a couple Luke knows; the husband turns out to be Ani's former teacher, Andrew Larson (Scoot McNairy). Andrew says he is doing the documentary with Aaron.

On the way back, Ani tells Luke that she has the job at NYT. Luke tells Ani not to take on Dean as Dean is respected, while Ani is not. Ani is angry at this suggestion of modeling her career to measure up to someone else's standards.

In flashbacks to 1999, Ani (Chiara Aurelia) is seen joining the prestigious Brentley School (on a writing scholarship) (Ani was the only one who wasn't filthy rich or came from pedigree), where she quickly befriends a clique of popular students, including Dean (Carson MacCormac) and his friends Liam (Isaac Kragten) and Peyton (Gage Munroe). Over the course of the film, it is revealed that Ani was sexually assaulted at a party (at Liam's house, after the girls went there from a school dance) by all three boys while intoxicated. She shared what happened with Mr. Larson, who encouraged her to tell her eccentric mother, Dina (Connie Britton), but Ani refused. Mr Larson took Ani to the school principal, but Ani could not definitely say if she told Dean that she didn't want to have sex with him. But she knows that she was sexually assaulted. Mr Larson is fired for letting the girls leave the school dance. However, she told her friend Arthur (Thomas Barbusca), who had been continuously bullied by the three boys. Arthur encourages Ani to confront Dean, so this bullying can stop. Arthur confronts Dean in the school and Dean starts punching him, when Arthur retaliates, his punch lands on a teacher. Arthur is livid that Ani apologized to Liam, the one who assaulted her.

Ani's past slowly starts to haunt her, which begins to affect her relationship with Luke. Ani is really bothered about Dean coming back into her life and the memories of the past start to haunt her all over again. She can't even have sex with Luke without triggering the memories of her sexual assault. Aaron tells Ani that Dean wants to meet with her to apologize on camera; she agrees, under the condition that Aaron keeps them separate until she is ready. Meanwhile, Ani struggles with her strained relationship with Dina, who claims she always found Ani difficult and alludes that she is only marrying Luke for his money.

At the documentary filming, Dean shows up unexpectedly early and Ani flees in a panic. Flashbacks see young Ani struggling to deal with the trauma of what happened to her, and not long after, the school shooting took place, perpetrated by Arthur and his friend Ben. Peyton and Liam were killed, and Dean was wounded severely and left unable to walk. Ani kills Arthur with a knife after he & Ben had shot their tormentors. Ben shot himself. Prior to the funerals, Dean started a rumor that Ani slept with him and helped Arthur and Ben plan the shooting because Dean didn't want to be her boyfriend anymore. Ani is consequently shunned by everyone, including Dina, who blamed her for causing her own sexual assault by drinking and partying too much.

Ani wants nothing to do with Dean. She writes an article and shows to Lolo. Lolo tells Ani to decide what she wants in life and not worry about what everybody else wants from her. She wants Ani to rewrite the article as if nobody else will ever read it, not Luke, not her mother, not her in-laws and so on. Back in 2015, at the publishing of his new book, Ani meets with Dean, who shows little remorse for what he did and threatens to recapitulate his story of her participation in the shooting if she tells anyone. But after being confronted by Ani during the conversation, Dean admits he sexually assaulted her. Having secretly recorded their conversation, Ani leaves. She decides to share her experience after encouragement from her boss and ends up writing a piece for The New York Times.

At their rehearsal dinner, Ani receives the final article that she submitted to Lolo, which is about to be published, much to Luke's dismay, who says he wishes she had dealt with it privately. Ani then confesses she has been using him to hide from her past and decides not to marry him. Ani finally begins to move on; she receives an overwhelming reaction from other women who tell her their stories of sexual assault, as she begins her career at The New York Times.