Only Mine is a 2019 thriller about a young woman who finds the strength within herself to recover and retaliate against her abuser.
Here’s a fresh idea for a movie: A pretty girl meets a nice guy who turns out to be unbalanced and obsessive, leading her on a desperate fight for her life. No one’s done that before, right? Oh wait. Everyone has. Like, a lot. That’s the business, though. Movies are a revolving door of rehashed stories. Some find ways to give them some spin, while others just sort of paint with a different color. It might be unfair to clump them all together like that, but it’s really a feeling that comes to mind when watching this movie.
Only Mine begins with a chase through the woods, revealing what looks like the final fate of young, attractive Julie Dillon (Amber Midthunder) before flashing back a bit to the time when she first meet-cutes handsome cop David Barragan (Brett Zimmerman). The two seem a happy couple though early hints suggest that David isn’t entirely sailing on an even keel. He’s controlling and stern and despite his initial warm appeal, is anything but. Now Julie has herself some real trouble.
I want to go easy on Only Mine, a simple, obvious new film from Michael Civille, now available only on Netflix. It’s well-shot and there’s nothing false about the characters or even the premise, even as it dips deep into plenty of old standards in the genre. There’s layers of authenticity that help to sort of elevate areas that risk sinking into the mire of goofiness, though it can’t help but end up there anyway. These stories, by nature, are hard to watch, women as targets of abuse teetering on an uncomfortable line of exploitation.
Still, these are not the larger problems holding back Civelle’s efforts. There’s nothing innovative in how this all told, with David transparently just inside of looney, the script hovering near unintentional comedy and the gaps between he and Julie made wide all too suddenly. There’s also a plot device involving interviews with the supporting characters, who talk to the camera in reflection of what we haven’t seen yet that really is going to divide audiences. I found it jarring and unnecessary, like narration, a crutch to avoid better storytelling. On a tonal level, it’s a bear trap that completely upends any forward motion of the main story.
Either way, it’s important to know that some of this is based on true events, that of Laura Kucera, who in 1995, ran terribly afoul of a jealous boyfriend (the film dedicates itself to her). Her story is tragic, and Only Mine does manage to at least have some weight simply with its association to Laura’s case. However, as loosely as they hold to that, the film itself fails to work effectively either as a thriller or a police procedural drama, lacking much-needed momentum and greater realism. It’s all very rudimentary and unchallenging, keeping this a mediocre watch.