Finding Nicole, 2025.
Directed by Harley Wallen.
Starring Kaiti Wallen, Sean Whalen, Richard Tyson, Mari G, Shawntay Dalon, Debra Lamb, Vida Ghaffari, Michael James Alexander, and Blanca Blanco.
SYNOPSIS
Nicole combats domestic violence to reclaim herself and her children and finds a way to begin thriving.
Domestic violence has always been a difficult subject to cover in cinema. The most hard-hitting approaches tend to have some grounding in truth, such as Gary Oldman’s Nil By Mouth, based loosely on his own upbringing with an alcoholic and abusive father. To say it was uncomfortable viewing would be an understatement, but it drove its point home. The other approach is to take it as a platform to build a far-fetched thriller on top of it, in much the same way as seen with Sleeping With the Enemy.
Finding Nicole is very much in the former camp, staying very true to the real-life story (turned into a book) of Nicole Beverly, whose marriage descends into years of abuse until her life (and those of her children) are put under threat. It’s not the cheeriest of subjects, but it rings sadly true at a time post-COVID with a world in economic turmoil, where domestic violence is on the rise once again. So whilst portraying true life events that befell Beverly (who also co-wrote and co-produced this film), it also highlights what many people are still facing.
As played by Kaiti Wallen, the film starts in the present and then works its way back there with a timeline of the relationship, intercut with courtroom scenes. What’s interesting here, and that does ring true from many experiences with the benefit of hindsight, is how quickly the warning signs come with Warren (Mary G.). He shows fragile masculinity and volatility very early into the relationship, with a growing adeptness at gaslighting. Nicole’s initial instinct is to excuse it, see the best in Warren, and overlook the glaring red flags until he crosses a line into violence. At which point the story shifts to Nicole’s attempts to rebuild her life, only for Warren to continually try and force (occasionally with horrible violence) back into her life. Even when Warren’s actions resort to murder plots, this could easily have taken too much dramatic license and veer off into Sleeping With the Enemy territory, but sensibly, they maintain the real drama without doing a disservice to that real experience.
Coming from such a harrowing true-life tale, and with Nicole Beverly directly involved in production, the film has a lot of sincerity. Kaiti Wallen delivers a heartfelt and powerful performance as Nicole, whilst Mari G. is also skin-crawlingly convincing as Warren. It’s the two roles most key to making the film work and not diluting its message. Elsewhere, there’s a good supporting cast, with Richard Tyson popping up as the Judge and Sean Whalen highly effective as Warren’s (atypically) sleazy, moralless defence lawyer. Shawntay Dalon and Debra Lamb are also very good in support.
There’s not a great deal of gloss or polish here, and the lower budget does show, but this isn’t a glamorous big-screen thriller. Whilst those rough production edges are clear, Harley Wallen keeps the blocking simple and just lets the cast do their thing. There’s no obtrusive filmmaker’s flights of fancy that might otherwise have pulled attention away from Kaiti Wallen and co, and potentially dilute the impact. That in itself is an impressive directorial skill to serve the story first and foremost.
Overall, this effective drama repeats elements we have seen before, but not often with this level of honesty. Finding Nicole reminds us not to ignore an ugly truth that’s still prevalent, and a committed cast (particularly Kaiti Wallen) hammer home that message.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Tom Jolliffe
