While I like Mila Kunis, this is a waste of her acting and of your time.

Kunis plays a woman who did have some trauma when younger, and I empathize. But, she is a terrible person throughout the entire movie with zero character growth and no arc. She is the same terrible person, even after getting catharsis.

From the opening scene, we get a view of her outlook on life. I was hoping it was setting up a dark comedy. But, no, she is just a self-absorbed, miserable person who wants to remain miserable.

This is based off a book, and maybe the book does a better job of developing her as a person, and a more entertaining plot.

First of all, Mila Kunis is sooo fine. Sometimes, life gets better with time. It's nice to see her back on the screen. I also like the concept of the movie which I won't get into here because of spoiler alerts.

Luckiest Girl Alive was released in select cinemas on September 30, 2022, before its streaming release on October 7, 2022 By Netflix and Chill.

Mila Kunis plays a successful career woman who faces a horrific incident from her past in this drama based on the novel by Jessica Knoll.

Jessica Knoll is the New York Times best-selling writer of Luckiest Girl Alive and The Favorite Sister. She adapted and executive produced Luckiest Girl Alive for the screen, starring Mila Kunis, coming soon to Netflix.

In 2021 She was named a screenwriter to watch by Variety, and in 2019 her original script, 'Til Death, sold to Amazon and made The Black List. Her books have been published in over forty languages. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and bulldog, Beatrice.

When we first see Ani (Mila Kunis), we gather that she's harboring some kind of childhood trauma. She's always having these highly absurd visions where she's attacking someone, drawing blood, or putting someone in their place (in an offensive way) through voiceovers that only we can hear. For those who haven't read the plot, it takes a good while to understand and acknowledge the root cause of her trauma and why she's forced to internalize it. Her work isn't exactly reaching the heights she's aspiring for, but she knows she'll get there. Her healing response is to not be seen as a victim, but as a woman that exudes power, confidence, and charisma in a bustling cosmopolitan city. She also wants to make her relationship with her fiancé Luke (Finn Wittrock) work, though he often gets the short end of the stick. Or so we believe.

The film effectively portrays the traumatic incidents in Ani's high-school days. It's shown through a fragmented flashback which often intercuts with the present, and Chiara Aurelia (playing Ani's younger version - TifAni) is fantastic in these portions. I may have to agree with most reviewers on the notion that the book is appropriate material for an episodic mini-series, more so because of the way the proceedings play out. There's also the question of Ani and TifAni coming across as two distinct characters altogether, but cut from the same cloth. The present-day Ani is a darkly funny, often-sarcastic version who gets a steady supply of voiceovers. The high-school version, however, gets a more brutal and vicious take. Aurelia is burdened with all the heavy-lifting in these scenes, but she rises to the occasion.

There's gangrape, followed by a school shooting, which literally shatters Ani's life. When Ani's complicity in the shooting is questioned in the present because an indie film-maker decides to make a true-crime documentary on the incident, it almost felt like a meta moment for (distributor) Netflix which is neck-deep into that kind of stuff. At one point, I wanted to enter this universe myself and ask Ani's fiance if he knew anything about her other than her designation, especially when it's apparent that she hasn't fully recovered from her high-school trauma.

There isn't any mind-blowing twist awaiting you at the end either (in the style of a Gillian Flynn thriller), and it simply advocates speaking out. Oh, how I wish those discussions were more in-your-face. Ani deserves a better series of bossgirl moments, if you ask me. It's still worth a watch for Aurelia's and Kunis' performances.