Mila Kunis brings quick comic timing and an easy confidence to women who can hold their own in company. We like her best when the writing gives her someone worth answering back to.
Fi1m perspective
In Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025), Mila Kunis’s Chief Geraldine Scott keeps disputing with Benoit Blanc whose case they are investigating. It is a small piece of business in a crowded film, but it gives her a reason to be there. We enjoyed their running exchange because she supplies resistance to a detective who might otherwise have the conversation to himself. Rian Johnson gives several of his actors little to do; Kunis at least gets a working relationship. Her confidence is useful here, and she does not need a large part to make it count.
Her route from Jackie Burkhart in That '70s Show (1998–2006) to Rachel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) makes sense as a development of comic timing. The latter was her film breakthrough, and its appeal depends in part on how naturally she works with a partner. She is often cast as the confident woman beside someone more restrained. The danger is that a script will treat confidence as all the character needs.
Black Swan (2010) made that confidence useful in a harsher setting and brought her more serious critical attention. Darren Aronofsky gets strong dramatic work from her as Lily, whose assurance makes Natalie Portman’s pursuit of perfection look still more painful. She trained extensively in ballet for the role, and meets its physical demands without losing the directness that makes her comedy work. The film is gripping, sometimes crude, and its writing gives the people around Portman too little life of their own. That limits Lily, but we would still send anyone who thinks Kunis can only do comedy to this performance.
She did not abandon comedy after it: Friends with Benefits (2011), Ted (2012) and Bad Moms (2016) all followed. Nor does a place in a large ensemble guarantee a fuller character, as Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery demonstrates. Bob Ducsay’s patient editing suits that film’s first hour, but cannot supply the missing work for actors left waiting for a line. For Kunis, another lead with a properly written partner would be more welcome than another crowded cast list.
Biography
Mila Kunis is a Ukrainian-American actress. Born Milena Markovna Kunis on 14 August 1983 in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, she was raised in Los Angeles.
She began her career with the role of Jackie Burkhart on the television series That '70s Show (1998–2006). Since 1999 she has voiced Meg Griffin on the animated series Family Guy. Her film roles include Rachel Jansen in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), Lily in Black Swan (2010), Jamie Rellis in Friends with Benefits (2011), Lori Collins in Ted (2012) and Chief Geraldine Scott in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025).
