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Crime fans have plenty to watch thanks to documentaries like The Innocent Man and dramas like You and Dirty John. If you’ve got a lot of stalker stories in your viewing history, it’s very likely that Netflix will suggest you watch Only Mine. The movie was added to Netflix at exactly the right time, as the millions of people bingeing the breakout hit You is now looking for the next stalker story to stream. Only Mine checks off a lot of the boxes, but where did it come from? Who’s in it? And most importantly, what is the true story behind Only Mine? Let’s break it down!
What’s up with Only Mine on Netflix?
Only Mine is a straight-to-VOD movie that was added to Netflix on January 15. It is not, I should clarify, a Netflix original movie. The film instead comes from MarVista Entertainment, a production company probably most known to Netflix viewers as the makers of a bunch–and I mean a bunch–of cheap Christmas romcoms.
Only Mine is not a romcom, far from it. It’s ostensibly a “true story” about a college-bound girl named Julie who starts dating a cop named David. Everything seems normal between Julie and David until he totally loses his cool, goes all stalker-y, and ends up shooting Julie in the back in the woods. That’s not really a spoiler, by the way; the movie starts with a flash-forward to Julie getting shot.
Who is in the cast of Only Mine?
Julie is played by Amber Midthunder, who currently stars in FX’s trippy superhero show Legion. Bad cop David is played by Brett Zimmerman who has previously appeared on Grey’s Anatomy and had a regular role on Days of Our Lives.
Is Only Mine based on a true story?
Not really, but Netflix and Only Mine really want you to think so! The film falls under the “movies based on real life” genre on Netflix, and it starts with a title card that says “based on a true story.” The film ends with another bit of text citing its source.
“In 1995, Laura Kucera was kidnapped, shot in the head, and left to die.
She lived.
Her attacker remains in prison to this day.
This film is dedicated to Laura, and to victims of abuse everywhere.”
The truth is that Only Mine used the absolute loosest of definitions for “based on a true story.” SPOILER ALERT: Just like the real Laura Kucera, Julie does survive getting shot and left for dead in the woods. That’s where the similarities between Laura and Julie’s story begin and end. Here’s what actually happened: Kucera was kidnapped and shot by her ex-boyfriend Brian Anderson, who was not a cop. Kucera also did not muster up the strength to kill Anderson like Julie does in the final moments of the movie; IRL, Anderson went to the police days later and led them to Kucera’s body, where she was found alive and unconscious. Anderson, then 22, was sentenced to 55 years in prison.
Only Mine also leaves out the truly tragic fact that Kucera, who spent 51 days in the hospital and relearned how to walk, died in a car crash almost a year after surviving getting shot in the head twice. It’s understandable why they left out that fact, as it’s deeply upsetting. But it’s curious why they even tied this story to Kucera’s in the first place since it has nearly nothing in common with what happened. I guess what’s really true is that having “based on a true story” at the front of your movie makes it a little more intriguing.
