About a month ago, I was on the phone with my best friend and she said “You need to watch this movie ‘365 DNI’.” At the time, the Polish/Italian film was yet to reach Netflix, but has since been added to the popular streaming service. Preceding its more widespread release, I’ve seen tons of posts about the movie and tons of girls gushing over the main character's attractiveness.
In consequence, I finally decided to at least attempt to watch it, which resulted in me fast forwarding through the movie to get the gist of things because it was just not for me. In my opinion, the multi-language film is not only problematic-- it’s also just not very good.
Basically, the movie starts when a meeting between an Italian Mafia crime family and black market dealers go wrong. As Massimo Torricelli watches a beautiful woman on the beach, his father is shot and killed, injuring him in the process as well.
Five years later, Massimo is a ruthless and violent Mafia leader, in search of the girl of his dreams he once saw. When he finally finds the “fiery executive" in Poland, he kidnaps her and holds her hostage, giving her a year (365 days) to fall in love with him.
While this may seem crazy just reading this, the response from viewers is very contradicting. Some find it cringy and unwatchable too, but others are in love with the scenes and character. My problem here doesn’t lie in the fictional plot (this is a movie after all), but more so in many women’s responses to the film.
At one point, Massimo explains, “Baby-girl, when your entire life is based on taking everything with force, it’s hard to react in a different way.” Most of what he says, this included, is honestly just extremely laughable and I still don’t understand why women find this character overall so appealing.
Massimo basically sexually assaults Laura, using coercion at least, and holds her captive in an entirely different country from her home.
Laura is scared and resists in the beginning. She even has a boyfriend back in Poland that she needs to get back to; plus, “nobody owns her.” But as time goes by, she of course cannot withhold herself from enjoying this beautiful man. In no time (only about two months), she falls in love and the two get engaged.
I personally wouldn’t call out works of art on “romanticizing abuse,” because I do believe creators should be able to talk about what they desire in their own content. But, I find it very problematic that so many real women have been posting things like “please come kidnap me and give me 365 days to fall in love with you” or “I need to find my Massimo.”
If Massimo was ugly, this would literally be a horror movie and they never would’ve fallen in love. But since he's so sexy, this super mediocre erotic film has been super overhyped and #1 on Netflix for far too long.
If you are a fan of Fifty Shades of Grey and You, this is a slightly more provoking, but less fun cross between the two that you may just want to see for yourself to decide how you would rate it.
Yes, I’m sure we can almost all agree on the actor’s beauty, but I feel that we need to question why his behavior also adds to his attraction for some women. It’s one thing to enjoy a movie and even root for the obviously evil characters, but it’s another to be attracted to that and wish for it to happen in the real world. Personally, I don’t care how good you look if you kidnap me and force me to do things. Regardless of this worrisome behavior, the plot and acting was just not very good all around.
At the end, Laura’s best friend told her, “You are trapped in a cage. Don’t you see it? It’s a golden cage, but you are still a f**king prisoner,” all which was disregarded when they went to find a wedding dress and began talking about the beautiful people and delights of Italy. Then, as the lovers were talking on the phone, it seemed that Massimo’s rivals killed Laura as he fell to the ground in despair.
But there is speculation that she isn’t really dead and there is talk about a follow-up film to be made.
While this is just a movie of course, the real problem is the real life women who seem to find this scenario so intriguing and intense. The women who are wishing for this to happen to them obviously have their own issues they need to work on aside from enjoying this trash movie.
I would give this movie a 1.5 out of 5 Swoops.
