Sabrina Lantos—Netflix
Stained glass windows can be seen in Ani FaNelli (Mila Kunisprevious )’s high school, the exclusive and distinguished Bradley School in suburban Philadelphia. She is nervous as she discusses a school shooting that occurred in this area 20 years ago and the allegations surrounding it with an independent documentary filmmaker.
“You’re lucky you have a mother who got you a lawyer and supported you,” the filmmaker tells her. “Not everyone has that.”
Ani remains silent as she remembers a time when her mother didn’t accept her version of the facts. Her mother hisses, “You disgust me. You are not the daughter that I raised.
She briefly returns to the present. “Hmm. Yes. Very lucky,” she replies, hardly managing to hold back her rage and pain. “Luckiest girl alive right here.”
On Friday, the Netflix original film Luckiest Girl Alive, based on the same-named 2015 book, will be available. Although the story’s finale has changed, its compelling central theme remains not.
Things to know about the novel
After being released in 2015, the mystery book Luckiest Girl Alive by author Jessica Knoll enjoyed tremendous success, spending four months on the best-seller lists and selling more than 450,000 copies. The book is mostly fictional and is written in the first person. It chronicles the phoenix-like rising and reinvention of Ani Fanelli, formerly known as TifAni, from the tragic ashes of her teenage years.
“The knee-jerk reaction is to dismiss Ani as vain and vapid,” Knoll told the New York Times. “But when we reward women for showing their full range of humanity, warts and all, when we give their struggles weight, we allow for the possibility that their flaws and stories can endear, inspire and move us, just like those of men.”
The book drew compared to Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, which was published three years earlier, because it was less concerned with how likeable its protagonist was than with her reality. In the same way that Gone Girl dissects crime, gender, and class, Luckiest Girl Alive reconstructs femininity via a modern prism.
“One woman’s carefully orchestrated, perfect life slowly cracks to reveal a dark underbelly in Knoll’s knockout debut novel,” read the review in Publishers Weekly. “What sets this novel apart is the author’s ability to snare the reader from page one, setting the tone for a completely enthralling read as the secrets are revealed.”
Who is Jessica Knoll?
Even though the book is fiction, author Jessica Knoll based some of it on her own experiences, a fact that the general public didn’t become aware of until a year after the book’s publication.
In the moments before the shooting in Luckiest Girl Alive, Ani is repeatedly raped by three different classmates, all of whom deny the accusations. Later, when her mother rejects this reality, Ani finds it very difficult to expose the atrocities.
What I Know, an essay by Knoll for the online feminist publication Lenny Letter, was published in March 2016. It discussed how Ani’s gang rape was based on her own horrible experience when she was 15 years old.
“My anger is carbon monoxide, binding to pain, humiliation, and hurt, rendering them powerless,” Knoll wrote. “You would never know when you met me how angry I am. Like Ani, I sometimes feel like a wind-up doll. Turn my key and I will tell you what you want to hear. I will smile on cue. My anger is odorless, colorless, and tasteless. It’s completely toxic.”
As Ani finally meets one of her assailants in the movie, she virtually verbatim recites these comments. She screams, “Do you know the difference between me and someone like you, Dean?” “My anger is like carbon monoxide. It’s odorless, tasteless, colorless, and completely toxic. But only to me. See, I don’t take my anger out on anyone other than my f–cking self.”
After reading the piece, followers flooded social media with messages of encouragement and gratitude for Knoll’s courage in speaking up. Although the author was not there during a school shooting, she was personally hurt by the descriptions of the rape scene.
“I was so conditioned to not talk about it that it didn’t even occur to me to be forthcoming,” Knoll told the New York Times. “I want to make people feel like they can talk about it, like they don’t have to be ashamed of it.”
How Luckiest Girl Alive’s conclusion departs from the novel
Although it’s not often the case for authors when their work gets optioned, Knoll was inspired to adapt the novel herself after feeling liberated by sharing her tale. But there’s one crucial area where the movie and the book diverge: the conclusion.
Ani eventually breaks off her engagement to her fiancé, a representation of the posh upper class she tried so hard to fit into. She then gets a job at the New York Times Magazine, publishes an essay similar to the one in Lenny Letter (although this time in the magazine), and uses the subway, which used to give her PTSD.
She is surrounded by the sounds of women’s remarks on her article while riding the subway, which appear to be coming from the commuters sitting next to her. One of them recalls, “I was also assaulted by a guy I thought was a friend, Hearing your story gives me hope that one day I can tell mine too.”
The 28-year-old brings her account to Good Morning America, where she’s interviewed about the essay. “I’m hearing from women who have never shared their stories, from women who have carried this horrible thing with them alone for 38 years, and I just hope that no one has to ever do that again,” Ani says. “I hope that people feel compelled to share their stories, to talk about what happened to them, and to know that you have nothing to be ashamed of.”
“It’s very meta that it’s a fictional story, a fictional character, but there are even more elements that are inspired by my real life,” Knoll told Entertainment Weekly of the changes to the adaptation. “I like that we looked at the year that followed me writing the book and writing my essay and the reaction to it and going on a TV show to talk about it.”
Mila Kunis, who portrays Ani with a haunted tenacity, helped Knoll in changing the finale of the movie to make it more accurate to her actual reality. Together, the author and performer crafted a concluding scene that had a strong sense of community.
“I know the ending is polarizing, which is what I think makes this movie so interesting. It’s not cookie cutter, and not everybody experiences this movie the same way,” Kunis told Entertainment Weekly. “A lot of people didn’t like it, but I fought so hard for it to stay in. I’m really glad that we won this fight because it’s so powerful.”
