Note: The following article contains a discussion of sexual misconduct.
The happiest girl in the world is the latest Netflix hit movie, the dark thriller that climbs straight to the top of the most-watched list upon its release on October 7th.
In the film, Mila Kunis plays Ani FaNelli, a New Yorker who seems to have everything, including a coveted position at a glossy magazine. However, she is forced to confront a dark truth about her teenage years when a crime documentary director asks her to share her side of a shocking incident.
The happiest girl in the world is based on the book of the same name by Jessica Knoll, who adapted her own book for the film. And both the film and the book were inspired by a harrowing real-life experience of Knoll.
Since it is kept as a revelation in the film, we point out that there are such spoiler ahead for The happiest girl in the world if you haven’t seen the movie yet.
The true story of the happiest girl in the world
It is revealed in The happiest girl in the world that Ani was raped as a teenager by three of her male classmates, all of whom denied it happened, leading to Ani being doubted by everyone, including her own mother.
Later in the film, a school shootout occurs and two of Ani’s rapists are killed while the third, Dean, is paralyzed from the waist down. He later becomes a gun control activist for the Senate.
It was not until a year after the book was published that Knoll revealed further in a personal essay lenny letter that she experienced a similar gang rape when she was a student at a private school.
“I always feel a little unworthy of being called brave or courageous because I had to [open up] in fiction. There were these dueling things in me. I desperately longed for the release of writing my story and the validation of realizing what had happened to me as a rape. I needed that,” she said today.
“But on the other hand, I was afraid that people would read it and come to the same conclusion that people did when I was in high school, which is that there was no violation and that I was somehow involved.”
In the film, Ani recites (almost verbatim) a passage from Knoll’s play as she confronts Dean: “My anger is like carbon monoxide. It is odorless, tasteless, colorless and completely toxic.”
While what Ani experiences is inspired by Knoll’s life, the filming of the book was fictional. “I still had the idea in my head that what happened to Ani wasn’t bad enough because that’s exactly what happened to me. I thought I had to make it worse,” she said today.
“She now carries the fact that they are ‘good victims.’ They were gunned down. The community mourns her death. Then on top of that, Dean does something good and powerful with what happened to him, which makes it harder for her to come forward.”
Like Jessica Knoll in real life, Ani can tell her truth when she gets a job at Magazine of the New York Times, who like Knoll published an essay about her experience. This wasn’t in the original book, which means the movie ends differently.
Netflix
“It’s very meta that it’s a fictional story, a fictional character, but there are more elements that are inspired by my real life,” Knoll said EW.
“I like that we looked at the year I wrote the book and wrote my essay and the reaction to it and talked about it on a TV show. I liked that we put that in the film because I think it’s good for an even more epic journey for Ani to take.”
The happiest girl in the world is now available on Netflix.
If you are affected by the issues raised in this story, you can access additional information from Rape Crisis England and Wales who are committed to eliminating all forms of sexual violence and misconduct their website or call the National Rape Crisis Helpline on 0808 802 9999. Scotland’s rape crisis The hotline number is 08088 01 03 02.
Readers in the US are encouraged to get in touch RAIN, or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673.
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