What's Happened
The Luckiest Girl Alive validates their courage and strength to survive one of the worst things one person can do to another. If anything, the film's plot can be described as anything but simple.
It's more of a zigzag line where you're constantly in the dark about what's really going on. While this doesn't quite deliver on the promise, it does make the setup for the third act quite interesting. Let's take a closer look. As always, feel free to comment your thoughts on this below!
When Luke books a table for four at a restaurant, Ani receives a surprise visit from a figure from her past. As Luke and Whitney exchange pleasantries, Ani scrolls through Whitney's phone to like pictures of her newborn. He soon sees an old face, Mr. Larson, that he saw in the flesh. The man hardly recognizes her because Ani was fat when she was in school. Mr. Larson is actually one of the good guys in Annie's story. In the film, he supports the English teacher from Brentley, the private school Ani attends.
It was Mr. Larson who found Ani after she ran away from Dean's house and a party at a convenience store where she was brutally beaten. Knowing she could trust him, she immediately fell into his arms. Even at the risk of knowing what his home would be like, he took her back home. And his responsibility did not end there.
He made it a point to discuss the matter with Director Mayer, who himself did not want to take action because of the personnel involved. He put his neck on the line for Ani when no one else would. He even lost his job after the shenanigans that came out of Mayer in a bad light of Dean and Liam's powerful parents.
Ani (Mila Kunis)
The Legal Friends group was actually funding the school's programs and the Principal didn't want to disrupt that. Therefore, when he tells Ani that she will have to call her mother to report it to the police, she freaks out and resists writing it, causing Mr. Larson to quit her job.
It's actually pretty vague, but the movie gives us enough clues to figure out the reasons. Ben, Arthur and Ani were friends at school. Although they were kind of outsiders, they cared and respected each other. When Ani started mixing with the kids of the popular fund, the two always had to rub shoulders with them. Although Ani was out of the equation, Ben was bullied by members of the entitled children's group. One such incident that Arthur tells Annie about is Peyton and his friends taking Ben into the woods and defecating on his chest.
This unspeakably humiliating act forced him to attempt suicide by slitting his wrists, but to no avail. Arthur mocks Ben for not standing up to him in light of Annie's similar treatment, causing friction between them. Arthur never took their pointless attention and always gave it back in droves. In one such incident, he gets into a fight with Dean and accidentally shoots an elderly teacher who tries to intervene, thus sealing his fate. He could no longer pursue his dream of going to Colombia, and if he didn't apologize, he could even face expulsion.
All these events, including anger at Aniya, combined to encourage them to shoot. Annie had something to say about being a victim. Documentary filmmaker Aaron Ani, when asked about the accusations of his involvement in the plot, says that during filming, Ben nodded because he was also a victim.
The shooting was a vindictive and effective way to "cleanse" the school of toxicity and for kids who never got into trouble despite doing the most heinous things possible. There may be some debate about how reasonable this is, but it is up to the audience to discuss "evaluative and corrective" justice.
Yes, there could be many reasons why the producers leave it up to the viewer. What Ani says for Nell in the movie is the only believable one we get from them. While trying on clothes, Nell asked her why no one believed her. He described himself as a "gag rat wearing a wet seal". He came from a poor family background and had a lower social status than the Deccan. He was a child on financial assistance. Through flashbacks, we see Ani suffer a terrible fate at the hands of what she calls "the trust fund kids."
There is also the matter of general perception. Since Dean had a better PR, he immediately beat Annie's version. Who wouldn't believe a kid in a wheelchair who can never walk again and loses his best friends in a mass shooting? That probably sums up how people at the time saw it.
Well, that's pretty obvious. The answer to the first question is the conceit that fuels the film. Ani was drugged and then molested by Dean and then Liam and teased by her friends. We see the trials when Ani wakes up in the bathroom and finds herself on the floor. Dean's mouth is between his legs as Liam walks in and asks him to stop trying. When he tries to leave, he sees a group of Liam's friends standing in a group and taunting him. It's also the main reason why Arthur and Ben decide to do something about a famous band that ruins things for other people. There are other secondary reasons why all of this happened, but that was pretty obvious.
Her hatred of trust fund kids is about her finances. As a child, his mother spent all her money and effort to get him an "expensive" education so that he could attend elite colleges and find a mate like Luke. He makes this quite clear in his impassioned speech, reminding Ani of where he came from.
Ani went to school on a writing scholarship. As seen in another teen movie this year, financial aid is often not well received by children. They are isolated and ridiculed, and Ani was suffering. @ The ending of the movie was quite unique because it was more along the lines of altruism than something tangible that could manifest physically. He has a meeting with the Dean at one of the book signing ceremonies. Unbeknownst to him or us, his phone is recording the entire conversation, in which he forces her to confess to raping him.
Dean, for his part, offered to recant her statement, accusing Annie of conspiring with Arthur and Ben if she didn't talk about the molestation. But he was one step ahead and finally gave her the finger before walking away. She tearfully listens to the tape over and over again. And that's part of the reason for her decision to end her relationship with Luke.
After calling off her wedding, she pursues her dream of working at the NY Times Magazine. Her essay is praised by the women's community and becomes a hit. Survivors come forward with their stories and dare each other. Now why is he breaking it? He has a perfect life, his charges are gone, and he can finally have everything he's ever wanted: a strong name behind him. She would become "Annie Harrison." The reason is that the film also touches on the coming-of-age element behind Ani. For years, the burden of the shooting and the story of the tormented him.
Tried To Protect
She tried to be the perfect girl for Luke and that's why she "used him all these years". He was finally able to move beyond what had defined him for so many years. Dean's acceptance was something Ani wanted for herself, and it set her free. She confesses to Luke that she pretended to be the perfect girl for him. He is like Liam to her in some ways. At least in what he represented, something he hated even to this day.
LoLo told Ani, "Honesty's approach won't do anything." The movie was like a perfect life for the couple, but then when the documentary comes along, everything starts to unravel. Well-kept ugly truths and dark secrets finally begin to come out of the box. At the end of Ani is himself.
He started arguing with Luke. They were glimpses, and Dean admitted that the rape was the last cog in the wheel that allowed Annie to hang on to her tragic past. In the end, he didn't live in denial that he was tougher and left without coercion.
After confessing to being a victim, it was Ani again. The rose, in the end, is a metaphor for Ani's inspiring story of redemption.