The film Only Mine on Netflix opens by stating that it is based on a true story. The following message then appears as the film ends:
“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.”
In the film, Julie Dillon suffers abuse at the hands of a manipulative cop. Ultimately, the cop shoots Julie, who survives, and exacts revenge on the cop by killing him. Does the film mimic Laura Kucera’s story? Not really.
Laura Kucera died a year after surviving two gunshot wounds to the head
In the mid-90s, Laura took out a protection order against her obsessive ex-boyfriend, Brian Anderson,
Discontent, Anderson kidnapped Laura, shot her twice in the back of the head and once in the shoulder, and left Laura for dead in a ditch.
Laura remained unconscious in a ditch for four days before Brian had a change of heart and led police to her body.
A court sentenced Brian to up to 125 years in prison, according to The Los Angeles Times. Nebraska Judge Maurice J. Redmond referred to Brian as a coward and a bully.
Miraculously, Laura survived the shooting and regained limited use of her arms. She’d also learned to walk again, but with some difficulty.
Unfortunately, Kucera passed away in September 1995 in a car accident. The Los Angeles Times reported that Laura died after her car ‘ran off a gravel road into a ditch and rolled.’ Kucera was on her way to her grandmother’s when the accident occurred.
Therefore, Only Mine can only claim to be very loosely based on Laura’s ordeal. The film has glaring inconsistencies that don’t fit with Laura Kucera’s story.
For starters, Laura’s tormentor wasn’t a cop – he was an ex-con who’d spent 30 days in jail for violating a no-contact order. Furthermore, the victim in the film, Julie, was shot in the leg and back. Kucera was shot in the head and shoulder and left in a ditch.
Julie’s injuries were severe but pale in comparison to Kucera’s injuries. Laura was unconscious when police found her, but Julie roused herself and got revenge by killing her abuser.
Kucera didn’t exact revenge on her attempted murderer, but the court system ensured that she got justice.
These are a few of the many discrepancies between the film and Laura Kucera’s story. Gabriella Geisinger of Digital Spy opines that the film doesn’t do justice to Laura and other abuse victims:
“Her [Laura’s] story is far more devastating than Only Mine makes it out to be, but neither does Only mine act as a sort of ‘wish fulfilment’ of what could have been for Laura Kucera. All in all, it’ll leave you bored and depressed, an execrable combination that Kucera, and all other victims of abuse, don’t deserve.”