Abhiroop Das
Helmed by Alpha Nicky, Lifetime’s ‘Giving Hope: The Ni’Cola Mitchell Story’ tells the remarkable true story of Ni’Cola Mitchell, whose journey as a successful author takes an unusual turn when she decides to pour all of her experience and spirit into raising a generation of empowered girls. After gathering the courage and resources, she establishes an organization called Girls Who Brunch, designed to provide a platform for those repressed by society. As time passes and she becomes more familiar with just how much work needs to be done, the gap between her personal and professional life grows increasingly narrow, with both good and bad effects. In covering all of this, this biographical drama movie portrays an intensely realistic journey of overcoming abuse and finding one’s own voice. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Giving Hope The Ni’Cola Mitchell Story Plot Synopsis
‘Giving Hope: The Ni’Cola Mitchell Story’ begins with a snapshot into the life of Ni’Cola Mitchell, a highly successful novelist who can’t help but feel that something is missing from her life. By pure chance, that missing factor is revealed to her in a simple conversation with a girl named Keisha, who comes to the bookstore to read. Keisha reminds Ni’Cola of a younger version of herself, who was punished for being left-handed and told that she would never become a writer. The fact that she overcame all of those hurdles gives her the confidence to assert that Keisha, too, will become a stellar writer one day. While the conversation ends on a positive note, it never quite leaves Ni’Cola’s mind, and she always finds herself returning to the possibility of helping girls like Keisha out.
After what appears to be months of brainstorming with her family, she decides to create an interactive platform where girls can come together, share ideas, and find support from one another. To do this, she turns to local school teachers and books a venue for the first-ever meetup, which she dubs Girls Who Brunch. This event involves partying, lots of good food, and perhaps most importantly, a sincere discussion about how girls can have a better future. Initially, Ni’Cola has to front almost all of the cost, and while she hopes that donations will soon come in, gathering finances proves to be a much more difficult task than she imagined it would be. Another great challenge she takes on is personally responding to each message left by girls who wish to connect, which leaves her with essentially no breaks.
Within a year, Girls Who Brunch expands to become a national phenomenon, with tours being set up at every major city, and several girls showing up to have their voices heard, and find a real community of like-minded, supportive people. However, these gatherings have a physical as well as a psychological toll, and Ni’Cola appears to be taking the brunt of it. Over the course of the movie, we learn more about her life, especially how she had to endure bullying as a child and was sexually abused as a teenager. When she got pregnant, Ni’Cola decided to become a single parent and give her family the best life possible, all the while managing her higher education and becoming a writer. The real challenge to her present ventures, however, comes with a shocking cancer diagnosis, which forces her to make a series of difficult choices.
Giving Hope The Ni’Cola Mitchell Story Ending: Does Ni’Cola Live or Die?
‘Giving Hope: The Ni’Cola Mitchell Story’ ends on a happy note, as the final moments strongly imply that Ni’Cola survives her battle with cancer and comes out stronger than ever. She will likely continue to do what she does best: empower others on the path of self-transformation. While this milestone is inspiring as it is, what is truly remarkable about Ni’Cola’s story in the movie is the journey she takes, one that is filled to the brim with personal sacrifices. Even at the moments where things feel the most grim, she refuses to back down in the face of adversities, and that includes cancer. The last time we hear about her disease on screen is when Dr. Freeman confirms that she is in remission, and there is nothing that can realistically stop her road to recovery.
One interesting detail about Ni’Cola’s arduous battle with cancer is how she initially tries to leave her family out of it. By keeping things a secret, however, she unknowingly ends up repeating a toxic cycle of avoiding her loved ones at the most critical moment. This perspective on life reflects an innate fear of bothering people with her own suffering, which she likely developed in childhood after enduring relentless abuse. In the present, however, things are different, and it takes Ni’Cola a long time to realize that her family is not just there to worry about her fate, but can be a powerful anchor to support her in times of need. We see it happen in real time as her entire community joins her in managing Girls Who Brunch tours, ensuring her treatment goes without any hassles.
The first time Ni’Cola hears about her diagnosis, her mind goes back to the upcoming Girls Who Brunch Tour and how she has no plans of missing it. In the month before the tour, we see her finally tell the truth to her family, seek guidance from Professor Sullivan, and perhaps most importantly, be honest with herself. With all of these lessons combined, she does, in fact, attend the tour in full confidence, but this time it is not from a place of avoidance or poor judgment. Instead, she only attends the event after confirming that her cancer is in remission and that she is making the right decisions. Her sister and daughter are essential to this evolution as spiritual guides and because they truly make the Girls Who Brunch project their lives.
What Happens to Girls Who Brunch? Does it Get Funding?
While the Girls Who Brunch initiative is a quick and resounding success, its social impact largely reflects that. On the financial level, however, we learn that Ni’Cola is deeply in trouble, with seemingly no easy way out. This changes in the end, when she is approached by the Senior Vice-President of The Home Store, which is depicted as one of the largest retail chains in the world. As luck would have it, the Senior VP not only shows interest in a collaboration but also provides a generous donation of 20,000 dollars. That much money goes a long way in fixing Ni’Cola’s money problems and simultaneously opens the door for her initiative to cover new ground and bring in more people. In the end, it is the most unexpected developments, and certainly the most welcome ones, that save Girls Who Brunch from bankruptcy.
The Home Store’s intervention in the ending of ‘Giving Hope: The Ni’Cola Mitchell Story’ is a full-circle moment on two levels, both of which connect to when Girls For Brunch was just an idea waiting to be materialized. Back then, Ni’Cola tried to contact a host of donors and sponsorship agents in the hopes of accumulating enough funds. While many did pitch in, she had to finance the first tour mostly all by herself, and was surprised when several donors later stepped out of the deal. And though The Home Store was never in any of those camps, Ni’Cola recalls that they showed no interest in collaborating with her. However, with the Senior VP herself attending the event, the initial rejection is all but forgotten, as Girls Who Brunch gets its official second wind.
A donation of 20,000 dollars has the potential to turn Ni’Cola’s fate wholly upside down, and what makes this a truly special news is not what this means for her, but also what it means for the people she supports. Early on in the movie, it is a big deal, and also a worrisome one, to expand the number of gift bags for the girls attending these tours. With this money, Ni’Cola doesn’t have to weigh her options, meaning that many more girls get the exposure they so desperately need. There is also a poetic layer to this, as it is implied that Ni’Cola first meets Shana when walking out of one of The Home Store outlets. Shana perhaps best emodies the people whom Girls For Brunch gives hope and joy to, which makes this grand collaboration with The Home Store all the more thematically fitting.
Does Shana Turn Her Life Around?
Perhaps the biggest surprise in the movie’s ending is not the last-minute donation, but the return of Shana. Following her appearance at the first-ever Girls Who Brunch event, we never quite see Shana again, and as Ni’Cola begins moving all over the country for her tour, that plotline momentarily fades out of the narrative. However, in the final moments, Shana returns to participate in the latest Girls Who Brunch party, and this time, has a wholly different perspective and worldview to share with her mentor. In their brief conversation that follows, we learn that Shana left her toxic household not long after the first event and enrolled in college, making her the first in her family to do so.
The fact that Shana’s life is no longer recognizable is a moment powerful enough to bring Ni’Cola to tears, as it affirms that what she does has meaning. In many ways, the dynamic between Shana and Ni’Cola reflects the latter’s relationship with Professor Sullivan, who not only urged her to take her education seriously but also helped her recognize her talent for writing. In many ways, Professor Sullivan is the reason Ni’Cola has the courage to carve out her own voice in this world, and Girls For Brunch represents her unique attempt to expand that wave of positivity.
With this reading, Shana’s metamorphosis takes on a very personal character for Ni’Cola, as not only does it prove that her Girls For Brunch initiative is powerful enough to change lives for the better, but it also reiterates her belief that one must fight for their place in reality, even if it means actively taking a stand against what’s wrong. At the start of the movie, she meets a girl named Keisha and promises to help her become a writer. While we never meet Keisha again in this movie, it is of little doubt that Ni’Cola’s words are destined to come true.
Read More: Giving Hope: The Ni’Cola Mitchell Story: Is It Based on a Real Story?
You must be logged in to post a comment.