When we first see Ani (Mila Kunis), we gather that she's harboring some kind of childhood trauma. She's always having these highly absurd visions where she's attacking someone, drawing blood, or putting someone in their place (in an offensive way) through voiceovers that only we can hear. For those who haven't read the plot, it takes a good while to understand and acknowledge the root cause of her trauma and why she's forced to internalize it. Her work isn't exactly reaching the heights she's aspiring for, but she knows she'll get there. Her healing response is to not be seen as a victim, but as a woman that exudes power, confidence, and charisma in a bustling cosmopolitan city. She also wants to make her relationship with her fiancé Luke (Finn Wittrock) work, though he often gets the short end of the stick. Or so we initially believe.
The film effectively portrays the traumatic incidents in Ani's high-school days. It's shown through a fragmented flashback which often intercuts with the present, and Chiara Aurelia (playing Ani's younger version - TifAni) is fantastic in these portions. I may have to agree with most reviewers on the notion that the book is appropriate material for an episodic mini-series, more so because of the way the proceedings play out. There's also the question of Ani and TifAni coming across as two distinct characters altogether, but cut from the same cloth. The present-day Ani is a darkly funny, often-sarcastic version who gets a steady supply of voiceovers. The high-school version, however, gets a more brutal and vicious take. Aurelia is burdened with all the heavy-lifting in these scenes, but she rises to the occasion.
TW: There's gangrape, followed by a school shooting, which literally shatters Ani's life. When Ani's complicity in the shooting is questioned in the present because an indie film-maker decides to make a true-crime documentary on the incident, it almost felt like a meta moment for (distributor) Netflix which is neck-deep into that kind of stuff. At one point, I wanted to enter this universe myself and ask Ani's fiance if he knew anything about her other than her designation, especially when it's apparent that she hasn't fully recovered from her high-school trauma.
There isn't any mind-blowing twist awaiting you at the end either (in the style of a Gillian Flynn thriller), and it simply advocates speaking out. Oh, how I wish those discussions were more in-your-face. Ani deserves a better series of bossgirl moments, if you ask me. It's still worth a watch for Aurelia's and Kunis' performances.