‘Salvation’ review: Assured Scottish influencer drama is driven by sterling performance from Liam Harkins

Dir/scr: Tom Nicoll. UK. 2026. 91mins

A newly-minted Scottish life coach finds himself unravelling in writer/director Tom Nicoll’s assured character drama, which rests on a powerful central performance from Liam Harkins. Making the most of its western Scotland location, Salvation begins as a study of arrogance, delusion and influencer culture, but emerges as a sensitive portrait of an ambitious, if misguided, young man desperate to make his mark in a world of limited options. Premiering in Toronto’s Discovery strand, Salvation could well travel to further festivals and, although its wider impact is likely to be limited, it marks out both director and star as talents to watch. 

Harkins gives Danny a vulnerability  that, crucially, cuts through his reckless self-absorption. 

We first meet 20-something Danny (Harkins, reuniting with Nicoll after 2021 short Lightning Test and 2018 student film Retreat) as he completes his life coach training; an intense workshop run by slick, self-proclaimed guru Marshall (Kevin O’Loughlin), who promises his mentees health, wealth and happiness if they can translate his teachings into a successful online business. “I’m proud of you,” smiles Marshall, and Danny blossoms under his praise. That initial optimism powers the film’s bright early sequences: as Danny sets up his website, films social media videos and gains his first clients, cinematographer Alex Grigoras drinks in the blue skies and wide coastal vistas of Inverclyde (the film was shot in Greenock and Glasgow).

This euphoria does not last long. Nicoll (a 2026 Screen Scottish Star Of Tomorrow) soon begins to seed small hints that all is not as rosy as it appears. Danny, employed as a potwasher in a local pub and already in debt, takes out yet more loans to establish his business; two of his clients rapidly fall away. It’s not for want of trying. Danny truly believes in this venture and is giving it everything he’s got. His mum (Kathleen McDermott), to whom he is very close, is supportive – although she is moving on to the next phase of her life with her new boyfriend. And while Danny may come across as bloody-minded, detached from the reality of his spiralling situation, there is always the sense that he could be genuinely good at this, if he could just catch a break. He certainly strikes up a real rapport with his one remaining mentee, Scott (Stephen McMillan, excellent in a small but essential role). 

As the narrative unfolds, and Danny finds himself getting further and further away from his goals, his dynamic with Scott begins to feed into his mounting desperation. He sees himself reflected in this directionless, downtrodden young man; he wants to help Scott, certainly, but also wants to put some serious distance between the person he once was and the man he desires to be. “Guys like us,” he assures Scott, “we know it can be better.” Both Nicoll’s screenplay and Harkins’ excellent, restrained performance keep this personal tension at the fore, giving Danny a vulnerability and likeability that, crucially, cuts through his reckless self-absorption. That’s particularly important as the film barrels towards

Salvation – the title a bitter irony – grows more intense as the economic pressure builds and the walls begin to close in on Danny; the film darkens, its already tight 4:3 camerawork growing ever more claustrophobic. Nicoll leans into the film’s faded, post-industrial setting, a pressure cooker environment where everyone knows everyone’s business (and, Danny finds, has an opinion on it) and ambition outstrips opportunity. The score, from Salla Luhtala, is particularly strong, mixing early swelling strings with, later, sharp tones and wheezy, sickly notes; the unmistakable sound of something having all the air sucked out.