This is the kind of movie that makes you want to read the book it’s based on, which is surely better, but having Mila Kunis as a constant presence makes it irresistibly watchable.
Kunis is stunningly beautiful, of course, but she has the vibe that she’s always been “one of the guys,” as well. I believe that’s an important quality for the character to have. Someone who almost subconsciously shape-shifts to fit whatever group she finds herself in at any given moment. Her performance, then, saves the material from being super soapy, while it’s meant to be a loftier tale of trauma.
Ani (Kunis) is like a New Yorker out of a Sex in the City setting – she’s a very good writer who works at a women’s magazine, although her popular material about “best blow jobs” and other Cosmo-like content is beneath her talents and she knows it. She’s dressed to the nines and has a handsome and, importantly, rich fiancé.
So, what could a glossy character like this have hidden in her past?
Ah-that’s the real story. Ani was once known as “Tiff” in high school. A financial aid student in a posh private school. There are the usual insecurities and mean girl land mines to navigate, but all of that pales next to a tragic school shooting that takes place, leaving most of her classmates dead, while she is uninjured. Hence the title.
One of the surviving students is now a gun activist and hopeful politician who says Tiff was in on the shooting and he’s going to tell his story to some documentary filmmakers. They’ve been trying to get Ani to “tell her side” of the story for many months, but she has resisted so far. After all, he was left paraplegic after the shooting and sympathies will automatically go to him, right?
But, it turns out, Ani has something that could be (and should have been) used against him. It involves an assault, which is presented in flashback in a brutal, if not totally explicit manner. Will she be blamed for being just as drunk as everyone else that night? Will she be exposed by exposing him?
I leave these points for the viewer to discover.
I will say that part of me felt guilty while watching this. Is this what they call “trauma porn,” or is this author Jessica Knoll’s catharsis for her own trauma that she suffered in real life (the story is fictional and not based on Knoll’s life, per se)?
And yet, I kept leaning in, wondering where the story would lead. In that sense, the execution of the material was skillful enough to make one want to keep watching. And Mila’s performance and presence also was a plus, grounded in some kind of authenticity.
Luckiest Girl Alive is now streaming on Netflix | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars
