Jessica Knoll's successful 2015 debut novel Luckiest Girl Alive is about a woman whose seemingly perfect existence is corroded. Looking at Netflix's movie remake, the film eliminates the books biting wit and razor-sharp observations of New York careerists. Instead, it creates a phony, unjustified empowerment song.
The film adaption shares a flaw with this summer's Where the Crawdads Sing, another Reese Witherspoon-starring adaptation of a best-selling book. Both movies replicate and amplify the shortcomings of their respective sources. In the case of Luckiest Girl Alive, decisions were made to tone down the novel's difficult psychology and graft the ending onto the #MeToo movement.
Mila Kunis' character Ani FaNelli is ruthless. She presents as modest, charming, and wealthy. She writes sex advice for a women's magazine while sporting Cartier jewelry. She is best friends with stunning Nell and is engaged to a muscular golden boy, Luke. She speaks to herself in an acrid monologue full of molten judgment. She is a "try-hard former financial assistance child" who rages against her perception and obsesses about the look of money. She takes pride in avoiding carbohydrates, but when Luke isn't looking, she stuffs her with pizza. The movie excels in capturing 2015 New York's brittle freneticism.
