User reviews

My advice is to go into this movie with no expectation... in other words, stop reading the reviews! Lol! I think the lack of expectations makes this movie the masterpiece that it is. -- Luckiest Girl Alive, what a great movie!!! The third person dialogue really nudges this movie beyond great in my opinion. Couldn't have chosen a better actress for this role. Mila is amazing as always! The mystery of "what happened" is executed so well. Revealing small pieces of the puzzle without revealing the full plot was executed wonderfully. I truly wasn't sure what direction the movie was going to go in. The direction it did end up going was unexpected and dark, and it was done so well. Sadly it's very relatable being a young woman. The trauma she lives with and the person she turns herself into is exactly what survivors go through every day. And the "villain" in this movie, is so typical... I highly recommend this movie, and if you're able to watch it with a boyfriend or a brother, even better!

I cannot put my finger on what was wrong with this movie. The story was good. I am not sure where it went wrong. It could have been Mila's performance, the perfect rich unicorn boyfriend, the one dimensional characters or the editing. First of all, the movie could have been much shorter. Second of all, it failed to make me care much about Mila's character. I don't know why. She had a good story and I understood what she went through. I think it's how she acted, it was a bit off, one dimensional. Actually all the characters were one dimensional. It was annoying in a sense, same stereotypes and say exactly what you expect them to say. And the boyfriend was just so patient and perfect it makes one nauseous. It felt unrealistic. It's one of those movies, that I am not sure if I am happy I watched or not.

The book was a million times more (not better; apples and oranges) than the movie. I don't think it's fair to expect 1.5 hours to do it justice. I can't give an unbiased review if the movie after reading the book so the movie was decent but the depth and development in the book deserves a mini series. Without the buildup, background, and character development some of the story seems incomplete and really paints a better picture of surviving/victimhood. I worry that it became more of a message than a quality story. That being said, the casting for Ani and Luke (especially) was great! I think it's a movie worth watching if you haven't read the book.

Film is an interesting blend.

A "boss girl" type film, the protagonist even has the typical sassy inner monologue.

However the movie has an incredibly nuanced portrayal of a woman who has suffered serious trauma.

Many films portray victims as weathered survivors.

This film shows the victim as extremely put-together and successful.

It's a take I haven't seen before, and it's definitely one that is good to see.

The movie uses two incredibly sensitive topics as plot devices, if the movie was any lesser, it would have trivilalized those topics.

But the unrelenting nature of the portrayals of those topics only adds to the movie to show what the protagonist has overcome.

The 1st 30 minutes of this movie is almost unbearable. I'm not a fan of voice overs at the best of times but this was overkill beyond belief. Just when I was thinking I can't stand having every scene described to me in detail like I'm a complete imbecile, the voice over narrative backed off a bit and allowed the story to tell itself. Apparently the Novelist adapted her own book. Big mistake. She's clearly just lifted chunks from her Novel and used as voice over to set the scene rather than use dialogue. As I say, once the story got going and the writer didn't feel so compelled to have a voice over explain everything, the story became quite compelling. It's a pity someone didn't step in and re write at least the 1st half of the film. Could have been so much better. If you can get past the 1st 30 mins, it's worth a watch.

Knoll should stick to writing books, not screenplays. In the convoluted, incohesive and dragged out 113 minute runtime, the story is all over the place, with poorly placed timeline tidbits, and ridiculous and mostly unnecessary scenes and dialogue.

The entire film felt one hour too long and failed to maintain any fluidity to the sensitive nature of its content. It lacked the consistency, depth and tone to be a suspenseful narrative, and instead, chose pretentious shock value trauma in a misguided self-serving fantasy theme.

And that's too bad, because the casting and performances were spot-on, especially Kunis who shined. Had any seasoned filmmaker made some much needed edits, they would've have gone a long way to make this a great watch, instead of getting impatient, frustrated and uninterested in what was going to happen next in the bender-mixed writing and directing. It's a generous 6/10 mainly for the performances.

I was excited about a bit of a glossy film with a dark, slightly complicated plot that might include a twist (that's how the trailer seemed to portray the film).

Instead, we get a story that is obviously one of those "lowest common denominator" NYT bestseller type stories (I hadn't realized it was adapted from a NYT bestseller written by a Cosmo writer/editor -- but I'm not at all surprised after watching). The problem with storytelling like this is that it's so amateurish. The characters are not deep -- they're more like caricatures. They act like "characters" -- not PEOPLE. They don't have any subtle nuances. They just do what they've been brought into the story to do. It makes the story uninteresting and flat.

And I'm not sure how the book rolls out, but the movie isn't sequenced in a way that keeps the interest going. It drags far too much in the beginning, and while it's dragging, it doesn't put together the pieces of what actually happened in the main character's past very well at all. There are a lot of characters, and not enough context around any of them to bring them together into a story worth paying attention to.

And when the story finally gets told, it's sad and disturbing, yes -- but it's not really told through a lens where the viewer can learn anything meaningful about life or humanity. It's just... sad and disturbing. The "resolution" at the end isn't even triumphant. It's just... an ending.

Good acting from Mila Kunis (I didn't care for her narrating, though), and Jennifer Beals shone in her small role. A nice movie to look at for the most part, too -- but overall pretty boring and disappointing.

Luckiest Girl Alive provides us an insight into the complicated reality that survivors endure on a daily basis. Flippant comments made by friends, family members, and strangers, rooted in their own fear and bias, become obvious when we view them through a victim's lens. The way this movie offers nearly every single nuanced judgment that people place on SA survivors is both dark and brilliant. My sincere hope with this film is that laypeople will wake-up to the realities of how our society continues to re-victimize SA victims. Due to the stigma, many people will not watch this movie, which sucks. It's such a necessary film.

Mila Kunis and Chiara Aurelia are truly incredible at their craft. 10/10.

If you are someone who could be disturbed by people being horrible to each other... you probably shouldn't watch it. But I thought it was a well made film and enjoyable for the acid tongue thoughts of the main character which narrates the film.

The main character Ani has it all. She is a super thin babe who writes for a magazine in New York. Her fiancé is rich - old money rich - and she is about to be married. But you can tell by her narration she hates the world she is in. Ani is "famous" or infamous for an incident that took place at her high school... a school shooting that the public knows her as a hero in, but doesn't know half the story. And hiding that story has made Ani the way she is. Over the course of 5 weeks before her wedding, a documentary film maker wants to have Ani participate in a documentary about the incident and this opens the floodgates for Ani to finally stop hiding.

I have to say, I had my fair share of the doubt during the first 30 minutes or so, because it started off as a typical rom com with a quirky protagonist.

But I'm glad I gave it a chance, because once it picks up, it's done masterfully. I was afraid at some point it would slide to "who done it" kind of a thriller, but fortunately that never happened.

That is not to say there isn't mystery. It's just properly balanced, so it never feels over the top. Characters are believable and much more nuanced than you typically get in this type of dramas.

We all heard a stories like this, but they are rarely explored respectfully and without going over the top. However, this movie manages to do it.

I'm glad the writers didn't go for twists and turns, but stayed true to the message they wanted to deliver. And it is a message we all need to hear.

Ani Fanelli (played by Mila Kunis - who I'm a fan of since seeing her in "Black Swan" some years ago now) seems to have it all. She's a successful writer for a New York magazine with a chance to go on to something bigger and better, she has a fiancé (Luke, played by Finn Wittrock) who truly seems to love her and support her. Everything seems to be going her way. But there's a dark side to her life as well - something buried deep within her that we see from the beginning as well. In that sense, the movie offers the viewer a deep and rather unsettling look at how past trauma can linger under the surface of even the most seemingly successful and functional people. Ani has strange visions (generally revolving around knives) and you know there's something buried that needs to come out. The movie slowly reveals her story - a modest background, the good fortune (supposedly) of attending an elite private school, and a school shooting in which several students died and one was injured and left in a wheelchair. (There's more, but I won't give it away.) The wheelchair bound student (Dean, played by Alex Barone) grows up to be a writer and gun control advocate - who accuses Ani of not being a victim, but of having played a part in the shooting. Ani is given the chance to confront Dean in a documentary that's being produced, and in many was it's that possibility that becomes the engine that drives the story.

It's a Netflix film (although it apparently had a very brief cinema release before its streaming release.) It's based on a novel of the same title by Jessica Knoll. Although the book is a "novel," it is apparently loosely based on some of Knoll's own experiences as a teenager. The movie uses the standard back and forth type of story-telling - so, sometimes we're in the present, and sometimes we're in flashbacks re-living Ani's past. I thought director Mike Barker did a decent job of blending the two. Kunis is the star as Ani, and she was effective in the role, although I actually think that Chiara Aurelia (who played young Ani in the flashback scenes) had a much tougher role and she performed it very well.

Although not graphic, the film didn't shy away from addressing difficult themes (perhaps even more effective in that way because it really didn't depict Ani's trauma in an overly graphic way) - and the themes are socially relevant. The story kept me engaged, even though as the movie went on there were some issues with pacing. But I wanted to know what had happened to Ani, and I wanted to know how it would affect her life as she came to grips with her past, so it was no struggle at all to stay with this. I wondered a bit about the title. In what way was Ani the "Luckiest Girl Alive"? Perhaps just by surviving the trauma of her teenage years? It's an interesting question to reflect upon. The last scene (set in a train car) seemed a bit strange - as literally every woman on the train seems to be reading the article Ani wrote and we hear through narration their reflections upon it. That just seemed kind of forced to me and not the strongest possible way to end this.

I would call this a really good psychological thriller. I was at first disappointed to learn it was based on a novel rather than a true story - my disappointment being somewhat tempered when I discovered later that the story was, as I mentioned, loosely based on the experiences of the original novel's author. In that sense, I think the reviews I'm most interested in are from women who've survived similar trauma as Ani - and most of them , from what I've seen, rate this movie highly. I certainly think it's worthwhile watching, and I'd rate it as a 7/10.

In 2015, TiffAni "Ani" Fanelli (Adult: Mila Kunis, Teen Chiara Aurella) seemingly is the picture of success as she's writing for widely circulated periodical The Women's Bible writing the most provocative and shared articles and shopping at Sak's Fifth Avenue in New York in preparation for her wedding to wealthy heir Luke Harrison (Finn Wittrock), however when documentarian Aaron Wickersham (Dalmar Abuzeid) starts prepping a true crime documentary about an incident that Ani experienced in 1999 at her school, old accusations from classmate Dean Barton (adult: Alex Barone, teen: Carson MacCormac) re-emerge as Dean asserts Ani was culpable in the incident, but the real truth has haunted Ani and now threatens to unravel her life.

Luckiest Girl Alive is an adaptation of the 2015 novel of the same name by author Jessica Knoll who also writes the screenplay. Plans to adapt the novel to feature film stretch as far back as the book's 2015 release when Lionsgate acquired the film rights with Reese Witherspoon set to produce the film, but this iteration ultimately never came to be. The adaptation regained traction in 2021 when it was announced Mila Kunis would star in and produce the film in association with Netflix with Mike Barker directing his first feature since 2007's Butterfly on a wheel having focused primarily on TV work such as Broadchurch, Outlander, and The Handmaid's Tale. With the premise and marketing as presented audiences are probably expecting something in the vain of The Girl on the Train, Gillian Flynn, or The Woman in the Window, and to a degree I suppose it's kind of part of that same sub-genre of thrillers, but it's also massively exploitative in its delivery as it tackles very charge thematic issues with the same glib attitude you typically see in an ABC prime time soap opera.

If there's anything to complement in terms of the movie, it would be in the performances of Mila Kunis and Chiara Aurella who play the adult and teen versions of Ani Fanelli respectively. You buy them as differently aged versions of the same character and they both give committed performances of this character, especially Kunis who has to play into the psychological instability of her character with a number of reality blurring scenes. I also enjoyed Jennifer Beals' portrayal as Ani's boss Lolo, but she also seems like she's playing in a different movie than this is as she has a delivery similar to what Calista Flockhart did in her role on the Supergirl TV show which is a big part of the underlying issues of tonal consistency throughout this movie.

Without getting into spoils, the marketing of this movie leaves out a crucial element of this story ripped from a real life tragedy (a school shooting just so you're fully aware) and let's just say the fact the flashbacks are set in 1999 is one of only a few details they take from this real world tragedy which when played side by side with some of the more glibly delivered socialite wine drinking scenes that feel like they escaped from Revenge or Desperate Housewives leaves you with the tonal feeling of somewhat sitting on the remote and shifting between mid-2000s prime-time ABC and the Oxygen network. The movie tackles issues related to lasting trauma, victim blaming, rape and various other topics but the handling of these subjects isn't done with the greatest of care especially since they're used as building blocks of what's at its core a very pulpy revenge-tinged thriller. With something like this the trashiness is inherently part of the appeal and I know the book and the movie share the same screenwriter Jessica Knoll and the book did receive reasonably positive reviews so I'm not quite sure what differences (if any) exists between source material and adaptation. Assuming you can get past the very on the nose references to that real life event I mentioned you can maybe enjoy this on a pulpy level, because unlike last year's Woman in the Window which was competent but dull, I was never bored by Luckiest Girl Alive as there was a certain "bad taste" factor to the events unfolding on screen that kept me watching to the end.

Given I've given something of a pass to things like 1974's Death Wish, it'd be hypocritical of me to give Luckiest Girl Alive less than I gave that film (and frankly this is better made and more entertaining so it's got that). I don't know if there was a way to do this material respectfully because I don't think that was on the movie's mind when it was being made and it was more interested in just being disposable pulp with a real world connection. This even comes through to the ending which is a lot cleaner than you see this situation in real life (see the excellent miniseries Unbelievable for proof for that) so this does fall into more of a "wish fulfillment" type fantasy than any serious discussion of the topic. Take that for what you will, you can probably guess whether this movie's for you.