Have you ever been sexually assaulted in your life by people who were close to you?
And instead of sympathizing with you, the public instead blames you for what happened
to you, just because your story isn’t convincing enough.
Well, this is what happens to the main character of the movie, who despite being the victim,
was shunned by everyone all her life.
But this is not how her story ends, as she does the unthinkable and writes her own destiny.
Hey guys.
This is Vi and you are watching Movies Hunter.
So the movie I am gonna talk about in this video is a drama mystery thriller film released
in 2022 called “Luckiest Girl Alive.”
This movie is also based on the novel of the same name written by Jessica Knoll back in
2015.
The timeline of the movie shifts between the character’s past and present after every
couple of minutes, so I will reorder the events of the movie to help you understand what exactly
happens.
So the movie begins in the same year, which is 2015 obviously, and we are introduced to
a 28-year-old woman, Ani, which is short for TifAni.
She is soon going to marry her boyfriend Luke in just a couple of weeks.
But unlike other women, Ani doesn’t see her marriage as holy or something she should
be excited about.
For her, It’s more like an official contract to bind her future husband to her.
But as we go further into the movie, we get some hints that Ani has a troubled childhood,
because of which she often gets panic attacks every now and then.
Well whatever it is, we will know soon enough.
On the work front, Ani works as an editor for a giant magazine company and she is basically
living the life every girl dreams of.
She has a handsome salary, a loving boyfriend, lives in New York, and whatnot.
But Ani doesn’t want to stop now, as she dreams of working as the senior editor at
the New York Times Magazine.
Ani comes from a not-so-rich family, so she knows what it means to be poor.
A documentary director named Aaron wants to make a short film about the school shooting,
in which Ani was a survivor.
Aaron also adds that her former classmate Dean has agreed to take part, as he also wants
to promote his upcoming book.
Aaron tries to convince Ani that if she does this, she will become very popular, as a lot
of people are interested in her side of the story.
But Ani plainly refuses, as something from her past is still haunting her and she doesn’t
wanna talk about it.
Wanna know what exactly happened in Ani’s life?
Well then let’s travel back in time to 1999 and meet Ani as a teenager, who just got admitted
to a prestigious school.
She tried to make some new friends at the school, but you know how hard it can be to
find some good friends.
But Ani still managed to befriend a young Dean and his friends Liam and Peyton.
She also befriends Arthur, who is bullied by Dean and his boys all the time.
One evening, Ani skips a party at her school and goes to have fun with her newly found
friends.
She parties with her new friends and is even getting attracted to Liam, as she finds him
cute.
As the night gets darker, we see that Ani, who was having fun just a couple of hours
ago, is now being raped by her own friends, Peyton, Liam, and Dean, while she is intoxicated.
But Ani somehow regains consciousness and runs all the way to a supermarket, where she
comes across her teacher, Andrew.
When Ani tells him what happened to her, Andrew decides to bring her to his house and clean
her up.
He wants to call Ani’s mother, but Ani refuses, as she doesn’t want anyone else to find
out.
Poor girl is so confused with everything that she goes to school with Liam and his gang
the next day and tries to pretend that nothing happened.
However, Andrew knows this isn’t right and tells the headmaster everything.
But since the headmaster first wants to inform Ani’s mother about the rape charges, Ani
changes her mind, as she doesn’t want her mother to learn about the incident.
This is what happens to a child when a mother keeps taunting their own children and makes
them feel like they are not loved.
Anyways, because of Ani’s U-turn, Andrew gets fired right away for reporting false
information.
Poor guy just wanted to do the right thing.
Apart from Andrew, Ani has also told her friend Arthur about what happened to her.
Arthur wants Ani to stand up against Dean, Liam, and Peyton, because if she doesn’t,
they will keep bullying other kids as well.
But Ani is afraid to do anything, as she doesn’t want her mother to find out what happened
under any circumstances.
Unfortunately, one day at school, Ani and the other students are attacked by two shooters,
who are none other than Arthur and his friend Ben.
Their only mission Is to kill Dean, Liam, and Peyton for what they did to them.
This is what bullying does to kids.
I am not saying that they did the right thing, but I am trying to say that if a kid doesn’t
feel loved or is constantly bullied, it messes up their mind.
After they kill Peyton and Liam, Arthur offers Ani a chance to kill Dean herself.
Although Ani desperately wants to get her revenge, she surprisingly stabs Arthur to
death with a knife.
Shortly afterwards, Ben shot himself to death, as he was done with his life.
After a couple of days, Ani and her mother show up for the funerals.
But surprisingly, they are not allowed to enter because Dean started a rumour that Ani
slept with the three boys consensually.
But since Dean refused to become Ani’s boyfriend, Ani helped Arthur and Ben plan the shooting
at their school.
So much for saving Dean’s life.
Because of this rumour, Ani was subsequently shunned by everyone, including her own mother,
who assumed that Ani caused her own rape by drinking and partying too much.
Now back in 2015, Ani prepares herself for the wedding.
She Is trying on her new wedding dress, as she wants her wedding to be fantastic.
Liam wants to move to London, as his firm offered him an opportunity to move there.
On top of that, the company is also offering an MFA program for Ani, so that she can follow
her passion for writing.
But Ani isn’t sure about this, as she hopes of working at The New York Times as an editor
one day.
Later, Luke takes Ani to have dinner with a couple Luke knows.
Surprisingly, the husband turns out to be Andrew, Ani’s former teacher.
He reveals that he is also taking part in the documentary, as he wants to share his
side of the story.
Now that everyone Is taking part in this documentary, Ani also decides to take part and share her
side of the story.
So she agrees to meet Aaron and finalize everything.
However, Aaron tells Ani that Dean wants to meet her and apologize to her on camera for
what he said about her.
Ani agrees, but on the condition that Aaron will keep them separate during the shooting
until she is ready.
Now that Ani’s past is catching up with her, it is starting to affect her relationship
with Luke.
Now she gets angry over little things, and one day, she even insults Luke’s aunt just
because she said that she admires Dean.
After a couple of weeks, Ani finally returns to her school to shoot for the documentary.
But Dean unexpectedly shows up there, causing Ani to panic and she flees immediately.
Aaron wants Ani to continue the interview and stand up for all the women who went through
the same trauma.
But it turns out then that even though Ani shows everyone that she is a bold and confident
woman, deep down she is the same old Ani who is still afraid to stand up to her rapists.
But enough is enough, and Ani decides to face her demons and finally do something in her
life that she wants, not what others want for her.
So she goes to confront Dean at the publishing of his new book.
Even though Dean shows a little remorse at first, he then gets straight to the point
and threatens Ani that if she keeps talking about what happened that night, he will simply
deny it and instead, will recapitulate his story of her participation in the shooting
at their school.
Ani tells him that she will do as he says, but only if he admits that he raped her.
So after a lot of hesitation, Dean admits that he did.
But it turns out that Ani has secretly recorded their conversation.
She didn’t do it to expose Dean, but to get a proper closure for what happened to
her.
Ani even writes a piece for The New York Times to share her ordeal with others.
At their rehearsal dinner, Ani gets a call that her article has been approved and is
going to be published soon.
But when she tells Luke about it, he gets upset and says that he wishes she had dealt
with it privately.
He doesn’t want the whole world to know about Ana’s tragic past in such detail.
But despite this, he still wants to be with Ani and says that he loves her for who she
is.
Unfortunately, Ani says that even though she loves him, she has also been using him to
hide from her past.
So she has decided not to marry him and finally stand up for herself.
Ani eventually moves on and starts working at The New York Times.
She also gets overwhelming responses from all the women from around the world, who tell
her their stories of sexual assault and how she gave them hope to stand up against their
attackers and be brave.
In the final scene of the movie, Ani is confronted by a fellow journalist who supports Dean and
accuses Ani of using him for her “15 minutes of fame.”
Wanna know what Ani said?
She walked up to the journalist and asked her name.
But before she could answer that, Ani tells her, “I’ll just remember you as the woman
I told to go f**k herself on Fifth Avenue.”
Now that’s how you shut down a bully.
Just like everyone else, Ani too could have just kept her mouth shut and let her trauma
eat her up from the inside.
But in the end, she chose to finally face her demons and do what she wants to do, not
what everyone else wants her to do.
This is why she chose not to marry Luke, as now she wants to explore herself more and
just do what she loves, “Writing.”
Her story did not just give her a proper closure, but also helped many women realize that they
shouldn’t live with fear, but with pride and dignity.
So this was “Luckiest Girl Alive.”
See you in the next hunt.