365 Days

Inspiration for fictional romantic dramas can lead to surprising results to say the least. For this scenario, the Twilight novels are often made fun of for how bad they are on their own within the teen demographic before the movie adaptations suffered the same fate,  even though they were box office successes. A writer of fan fiction from that source material, in turn, ended up creating a series of erotic romantic drama novels 50 Shades of Grey that contained the same aforementioned issues but for an older mature audience, which were adapted for a big screen trilogy. This brings us to a new inspiration that would end up becoming one of Netflix's biggest controversies, 365 Days, based on the Polish novel of the same name (being inspired by 50 Shades trilogy). I first heard about this from movie reviewers on YouTube (Double Toasted) and figured I could take it on judge how far movies can fall in a terrible year of 2020. In my research about this, I learned about the controversy surrounding its release on Netflix and was wondering why this wasn't getting the amount of heat Cuties was getting (I'll take that one on after this critique). I watched this to see how much of the reception was warranted and was appalled by how offensive and terrible this erotic romantic drama ended up being as one of the worst of 2020. 

*Note: Normally anything covered in this blog is never spoiled to keep it simple is describing the overall quality. However, this is a special situation where it's necessary for to spoil the details regarding how demeaning and dismal this is. It should also be noted that the Polish author of the source material is female, which makes everything that occurs questionable.

"Inspirations" it took from 50 Shades: In a time where we hope to learn from sensitive topics, these Polish filmmakers ignored #Metoo and female empowerment movements to adapt a source material that's demeaning towards women. The premise is more absurd than 50 Shades as an obsessive male lead forces his prey into a situation for his own benefit (at least there was a contract with a yes or no choice in the American films). The soundtrack is attempting to convey how "desirable" this kind of situation is for the woman but it's incredibly grating and torture to listen to. It has sex scenes involved but they are lackluster and very degrading to this situation. The dialogue throughout is not only dismal but it setbacks women by many decades as they are treated as sex objects craving to be dominated by a powerful rich man. The one good aspect it did have was nice European locations and good looking clothing fashion.

What's it about?* The story follows a crime family gangster leader whose obsession with a women leads him to kidnapping on her birthday and keeping her prisoner for 1 year to make her want to fall in love with him. He saw her 5 years ago when his father was killed (within 2 minutes hilariously) and has been creepily planning to hold her hostage (including showing her photos infidelity from her boring boyfriend. writing a breakup note to said cheater, and hanging a large photo of her in his mansion). Before and after that, he has been sexually abusing females around him (such as a bit where he forces an airline steward to perform an act on him with her smiling after as well as chaining his prisoner to a bed to watch him receive an activity from an escort he hired). During that time, he removed her means of electronic communication to whittle her down into desiring him and by the time she gets her phone back, she calls her mom (after a period of time) only to lie to her about her situation (yes seriously). 

The imprisoned girl, who's told where to go with this creep and what to wear, unintentionally causes a gang war to erupt when she flirts and is almost sexually assault by a rival gangster (which wouldn't have happened if he didn't hold her hostage to begin with). This Stockholm Syndrome gets to the point where his creepy actions and threats of hurting her actually rewards him in relationship based primarily on that physical attraction as well as plenty of on-screen coitus ("Oh those people he's probably killed that I saw him do? Ah who cares about that...look at his physique!"). It takes 2 months before they are engaged to be married (lying to her parents about his profession) and she gets pregnant from her stalker kidnapper fiancé. Her life was dull and boring before but the way she describes the situation to her best friend is just cringe to listen to. The cliffhanger ending is sets up for sequel bait ends her a rival mob family planning to kill her and a fate left unknown (unfortunately a followup is in the works). 

 

Overall Consensus: 365 Days is an abomination that glorifies rapists, showcases Stockholm syndrome in a horrible plot that opposes female empowerment, displays ignorance towards sensitive topics, and has an awful romance it deems erotic. 1/2** Runtime: 1 hour 56 minutes R

**Yes half a star out of 5.  

Reasons to watch it: You want to press the mute button and just fast forward look at the European scenery. 

 

Reasons to avoid it: You dislike any premise that glorifies stalkers, creeps, and/or rapists. You don't like seeing Stockholm syndrome in any modern media in general. You are against females being displayed as wanting a powerful man to dominate them that they can please. If anything that has been described above disgusts you at all (my writing it all down is better than watching it). You