As soon as it hit the Netflix billboard, the movie The Girl Who Had Everything, starring Mila Kunis, has aroused great interest because the events it narrates could be perfectly based on real life. This mystery story about a past that always comes back is based on Jessica Knoll’s feature debut Luckiest Girl Alive, which in 2015 was the best-selling American mystery novel of the year, according to The New York Times.
Narrated in the first person, The Girl Who Had It All follows the existence of a successful young woman who has had to reinvent herself after some terrible events that marked her adolescence. Ani Fanelli, the main character played by the Ukrainian-born actress (also called TifAni FaNelli, Tif or Finny) seems to lead, at 28, a perfect life: she works as an editor in a famous women’s magazine and has promised to an affectionate man of good family.
But he hides a secret that will only come back to his life: as a teenager, he went through a series of violent and traumatizing events, including a school shooting. In the novel it is revealed that she was gang raped when she was 14 years old and that when she tried to seek help after the assault, her classmates did not believe her and even subjected her to cruel intimidation and teasing.
Gang stalking and rape is not something that Knoll invented out of thin air. On the contrary: for the novel he drew on his own experiences as a teenager. However, during the promotion of the book she refused to make it public. He explained that they were stories that he had heard and that they had happened to third parties. But in March 2016, Knoll wrote an essay for the online feminist newsletter Lenny Letter, in which she described her experiences as a rape survivor.
It was as a result of interacting with various rape survivors that he launched into revealing the facts. “I was overwhelmed by the look of these women when they said: ‘What’s up, I made it up’, and I never wanted to see that look on anyone’s face again,” she assured.
With these credentials, it is not surprising that behind the film version is the very conscientious and expeditious Reese Witherspoon. In April 2015, Lionsgate announced that it had acquired the film rights to the novel, with the production by Pacific Standard, the actress’s production company, although it has finally been released on Netflix in co-production with Made Up Stories and Picturestart.
The script is written by Jessica Knoll herself and directed behind the camera by Mike Barker. Critics have been quick to compare it to the novel Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012) and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. USA Today stated that “Recent newsworthy topics create a backdrop that can sometimes make the reader uncomfortable. However, the visceral tension that Knoll creates actually complements the reading experience.”
