Today, we are investigating something utterly unrelated to what we often do. We are investigating the 356 Days trilogy of sexual mafia thriller flicks, a Netflix original. The films are based on the Polish book trilogy 365 DNI (365 Days) by Blanka Lipinksa. The story centres on an Italian Mafia boss and a young Polish woman who meet while walking through the streets of Sicily.
The first movie, which debuted on June 7th, 2020, attracted a lot of attention all throughout the world. The following episodes of the series have since been published one after another. The Next 365 Days, the most recent book in the series, recently came out. To comprehend what the trilogy is about and why it is so well-known, we shall quickly review all three of them.
365 Days (2020)
Beginning the movie with a routine deal are the mafias of the Sicilian crime family the Torricellis. The family’s youngster, Massimo Torricelli, is fixated on watching a woman on the beach while his father handles the transaction. The conference suddenly turned negative after appearing to be going well. The dealers’ gunshot passes through Massimo’s father very impressively before striking him in the abdomen. Do you understand how intense it is? While the scene changes, we go forward in time by five years. Massimo, the Torricelli criminal family’s current capo, is still troubled by the mysterious woman he saw on the beach the day his father died.
Meanwhile, back in Warsaw, the stunning beachside woman, Laura Biel, is in a troubled relationship with a man by the name of Martin. She makes the decision to travel to Italy to celebrate her 29th birthday with her boyfriend and best friend Olga. Martin is currently a real d-bag.
He makes the decision to leave her in Italy alone and conduct some independent research on Mount Etna. Like, dude, it is her birthday. Come on! She goes for a walk to help her deal with everything but ends up being kidnapped. Of course, Massimo, our Italian crime boss, is the kidnapper.
After kidnapping Laura and taking her to his villa, Massimo tells her that she was the girl he saw on the beach five years ago and that when he was hurt, all he could think about was her. He spent years looking for her, and when he did, he decided to abduct her because that is how all beautiful romances start. He planned to hold her captive for a year, hoping she would fall in love with him.
But to make the situation a little better, he promises that even though he is physically and sexually aggressive toward her, he won’t touch her without first getting her permission. Meanwhile, Laura gets a little comfortable and teases him when they are together and afterward says no to having sex with him. She starts to tease him once again when they are in a hotel in Rome, and things that ought to be censored happen. Things don’t escalate too much, though. Massimo decides to exercise some self-control and takes her to a club instead.
At the club, Laura decides to parade herself in front of his buddies. Then, she strikes up a conversation with a member of the rival mafia family and flirts with him, but he takes it too far and gropes her. Massimo is, obviously, enraged and pulls out a gun. He also gets Laura out of the club while he stays behind to deal with the man. The next morning, she wakes up on a yacht with Massimo and his fellow mafioso, Mario, bickering. Turns out that Massimo has pretty much started a war between the two crime families by shooting the man who had touched Laura.
All of this is quite new and unnatural to Laura, considering the fact that she knows nothing about the crime world and how dangerous things can be. So, she apologizes to him, hoping to sort things out, but Massimo rejects Laura’s apology and holds her responsible for the situation. Laura stumbles into the water as they argue and begins to panic. Massimo rushes to her aid and saves her. She finally wakes up to a worried Massimo. He was scared that she wouldn’t make it and that he would end up losing her. This incident led to many heightened emotions, ultimately leading to them engaging in repeated sexual activity.
Later that night, the two attend a masquerade ball where Anna threatens Laura. This hate towards Laura was because Anna was Massimo’s ex-girlfriend. But the thing is, it wasn’t just something simple as a bad breakup; no, Massimo had told her that he would leave her the moment he found Laura. So, when he found Laura at the airport, Anna was unceremoniously dumped. They say there is nothing more dangerous than a woman scorned, but Anna is doubly scary because she is not just a woman scorned; she is a part of the mafia.
After the ball, Massimo tells Laura that he is sending her back to her parents to visit them for a little while and will join her once he finishes up some business. Now, Laura is obviously scared that Anna will do something to her, but Domenico, one of Massimo’s right-hand men, reassures her that she won’t get hurt and she should just wait in Warsaw. So, she does that. She waits for Massimo in Warsaw for many days without any contact.
Anyone is bound to get restless when things are uncertain, so she goes clubbing with her best friend Olga to loosen up a little. In the club, she runs into her ex-boyfriend, Martin. Like I said, Martin is a bit of a douche, so even after all he did, he tries to convince her to get back together with him. In fact, he goes to the extent of following her back to her apartment. However, Massimo is waiting for her back at the apartment. Martin leaves then, and the two of them decide to have sex.
When she opens his shirt, she finds wounds on his chest due to the ongoing conflict between his family and Anna’s family. Yeah, mafia life is tough. This is when she admits that she loves him. So, obviously, Massimo proposes to her the next morning, and again, quite obviously, she says yes. But she requests that he keep his “work” a secret from her parents, which is quite understandable.
I doubt any parent who is not from the mafia life would be happy to know that their daughter is getting married to a dangerous man, and her life would constantly be in danger by extension. Meanwhile, Mario alerts Massimo of the escalating tensions back in Italy. On the other hand, Laura has been under the weather for a while but refuses to visit a doctor.
The two talk about their forthcoming nuptials, which she has forbidden her family from attending because she does not want them to find out what Massimo does. Massimo does, however, permit Olga to attend as Laura’s bridesmaid. When Olga comes to Italy, Laura informs her she is pregnant. Olga manages to convince Laura to tell Massimo about the pregnancy. So, after dinner, Laura calls him and asks if they can talk.
However, one shouldn’t forget that the movie is still about mafia families. While these two are romancing it up, the opposing mafia family is preparing to murder Laura. Mario receives information from a Torricelli informant that the rival family is going to attempt to murder Laura. Just then, Laura’s vehicle enters a tunnel but does not exit it. Laura’s call drops, and Mario dashes to find Massimo. Realizing the repercussions and the reality of losing his fiancé hits Massimo, and he breaks down. The movie ends on a cliff-hanger with a police cruiser blocking the tunnel’s entrance.
365 Days: This Day
This movie finally gives us the closure we needed from the first one. Laura is not dead, but she did lose her baby in the accident. She is shown getting married to Massimo. They go on their honeymoon and have a lot of fun with each other. However, things have to go back to everyday life. Massimo goes back to his life of crime while Laura struggles to do things to keep herself busy.
Their days stay filled with constant arguments since the two of them have not done a lot of regular everyday things with each other. A new character, Nacho, who is the new gardener, is introduced to the plot. Since Massimo and Laura keep fighting all the time and she is confined to being a housewife, she devotes her attention to Nacho and going out with Olga. Although, when Laura tells him that she needs to utilize her time more productively, Massimo steps up and gifts her an entire fashion brand so that she doesn’t feel bored anymore.
Except, this still doesn’t solve their lack of communication. Massimo had failed to tell Laura about his brother. When he did mention it, he did not stay long enough to talk about it. Rather, he refused to talk about it. This lack of communication came to bite him back when they went to a party.
At the party, Laura finds Massimo having sex with his ex-girlfriend Anna in the bathroom. This enrages her, and she leaves the party. As she is walking out, she meets Nacho. He offers to drive her out of there, and she agrees. The two get talking, and he asks her if she wants to come to Spain with him. For some reason, she really trusts this gardener. She chooses to run away with him instead of talking to her husband about what happened. Honestly, I thought she would know better than to run away, especially since she is a mafia boss’s wife, and he has enemies everywhere who want to target his weakness (which is obviously her).
But things seem to be going well for her at the island where Nacho took her. Yeah, the gardener has a beautiful beach-front villa. He justifies that by telling Laura that his father is a wealthy man, but he wants to do something of his own. Anyway, while Laura is enjoying herself on the island, surfing with Nacho, meeting his sister, and having sex dreams about him, Massimo is stewing and fuming. He is going crazy trying to locate his wife. He goes to the extent of meeting his ex-girlfriend, Anna, to find out whether Laura left on her own or if there was foul play. So, technically, Anna wasn’t the reason Laura went missing, but she was the reason Laura ran away.
One fine day, Nacho tells her that he wants her to meet his father. The day before they are supposed to meet him, Nacho decides to reveal his identity to Laura. Turns out, Nacho is no other than the son of a rival gang. His family plans to use Laura as leverage to make Massimo stop expanding too much. Laura is astonished and hurt, but she goes with him to his father’s house anyhow.
When they reach his father’s house, Nacho tells the guards that she is with him. But they insist that his father told them to keep her safe instead. Thinking that to be true, he leaves Laura in the hands of two security personnel. Massimo and Nacho’s father are arguing, and he is using the captured Laura as leverage. However, during the argument, Nacho realizes that the wrong guards have taken Laura. They realize that this is a clear case of double-crossing.
Massimo and Nacho rush to save Laura. In the meantime, Laura meets Massimo in an old church. She goes up to him to ask him why he cheated on her. This is when she realizes that the person in front of her is not Massimo at all. It is his twin brother, Adriano. It is made clear that Adriano was the one Laura saw having sex with Anna the night of the party. Of course, she would have known better if only Massimo had told her that he had a twin.
In the ensuing scene, Nacho and Massimo show up to save Laura. Adriano points a gun at Laura’s head while Anna points a gun at Massimo. Turns out that all that happened was a part of an elaborate plan by Adriano and Anna to take revenge. Adriano had killed their father to take over the gang for which Massimo had banished him from the family. He hadn’t left his brother out to dry, though.
He used to give him a little allowance every now and then, but that wasn’t enough for Adriano. So, he teamed up with Anna and planned it all out. While taunting Massimo, he also tells him about the child Laura lost. Laura manages to get out of Adriano’s grip and is immediately shot in the abdomen by Anna. Massimo shot Adriano while Nacho took out Anna. Massimo immediately fell next to Laura and held her bleeding body. Yes, the second movie also ends on yet another cliff-hanger.
The Next 365 Days
Like the previous movies, this one too builds up on the suspense. For a solid five minutes, the audience is left wondering whose funeral Massimo is at. Considering how upset and torn Massimo looked, I assumed it was Laura. It wasn’t. It was Adriano’s funeral. Guess crime families continue to stay loyal to each other even if one of them tries to kill your wife.
But Laura is fine, but she is also losing her mind staying in bed all day because Massimo refuses to let her do anything, including their only joint activity, sex. So, she leaves the house and gets her hair done in hopes of seducing Massimo. It works, and she manages to seduce him in the middle of his work meeting. Later, she continues on her rebellious streak and sneaks out with Olga for dinner. At dinner, Laura confesses to having developed feelings for Nacho to Olga.
Later that night, Massimo and Domenico find Laura and Olga at a nightclub. They have a bit of fun there and head back home. Later, at home, a slightly drunk Massimo confronts her about her time on the island, and he talks to her about the child they lost. Except, he doesn’t talk as much as he shouts. He is deeply upset that she didn’t tell him about her pregnancy. He breaks a glass in anger which only makes her compare Massimo’s behavior to that of Nacho’s.
When Laura eventually nods off, she dreams of having sex with Nacho, but she wakes up to find Massimo in her bed instead. There is an immediate shift in her body language, which Massimo notices. This convinces him that she is hiding something even though she claims that it is just a hangover. This particular event becomes the turning point of their relationship. Their trust issues and their lack of communication only continue to increase.
Massimo tries to forget about Laura by getting high, surrounding himself with women, and drowning himself in alcohol and work, but it doesn’t help. He doesn’t stop thinking about Laura. Meanwhile, Laura puts all of her effort into her career. These efforts pay off as Laura and Olga are invited to attend a fashion show in Lagos. The two continue to party, represent brands and showcase their own line.
Laura spots Nacho on the beach on their first day in Portugal. He had just won a surfing competition. She, obviously, makes a run for it because she doesn’t want to meet him, especially since her feelings are all over the place. However, later that night at the fashion show, Laura encounters Nacho’s sister, Amelia, who asks her to give Nacho a chance to at least explain himself. Her argument is that Nacho is not a bad person; he is just loyal to his family like all mafias. She manages to convince Laura to allow Nacho to explain himself.
This leads to Nacho and Laura meeting once again, which turns into lengthy lovemaking on the beach. Nacho even confesses his love to Laura. However, he is quite mature about the whole situation. He says that he does not wish to force or coerce Laura into being with him. He wants her to be with him only because she wants to be with him. With that, he let her return to Massimo and told her he would wait for her instead.
Meanwhile, Massimo is waiting for Laura at her hotel, and he is enraged. Laura had been unreachable the night before, and the bodyguard was too busy taking care of Olga to have also kept track of Laura. Laura is tired of being controlled and mentions that she’s on the verge of filing for divorce, which only infuriates Massimo further. But we see a little maturity on his part as he grants Laura some time to sort through her feelings when she asks. He leaves the private plane at her disposal and goes back to Sicily.
Laura ends up going back to Poland to sort through her feelings. She tells her parents that she has been feeling conflicting emotions and that she might be in love with Nacho. Her mother tells her that in partnerships, women must prioritize their own happiness, even if she adds that she is unsure of who she would choose. Her wise words are that a relationship can only succeed if the woman is selfish. I don’t really understand the logic, but it comes from an older woman, so I’ll take it, I guess.
Back in Italy, Olga overhears Massimo and Domenico talking. Olga worries that he will kill Laura, which is a legitimate concern. Olga calls Laura in a panic because Massimo has found out about her affair with Nacho.
Laura returns to Sicily and finds a surprise waiting for her, disguised as a cab driver. It was Nacho. He decided to risk his life and his father’s business to come and see Laura in a territory where he would most definitely be killed. But Laura is still confused about her feelings, so she tells him she needs more time, which he is happy to grant her. When Laura gets to Massimo’s villa, Olga is worried to see Nacho as the driver because it will give Massimo another reason to kill them. Laura reassures her and goes to meet Massimo.
She finds him at the beach looking all philosophical and melancholy instead of angry. Massimo begins by stating that he didn’t want to be bad person and that he felt sorry that Laura felt she had to deal with the loss of their child on her own and thought that she couldn’t come to him. She asks him why he didn’t do anything when he already knew about Nacho and her. He decided to reply to that using a quote from an old story that his father used to read to him.
The quote said, “If you really love something, just let it go. If it comes back, it’s yours forever. If it doesn’t, it was never meant to be.” The movie ends with Massimo asking, “Are you back, baby girl?”. There are only two possible reasons for an ending like this. Either it is just an open ending, or they want to make a fourth film.
If I have to give my thoughts on the trilogy, I’d say the first and the second movie were still entertaining since they were packed with little punches of action scenes, but the third movie delivered nothing when it came to the mafia. The third book has a considerable amount of action, which was missing from the movie. Apparently, there was another kidnapping and even a heart transplant.
It could’ve been a lot more dramatic and action-packed. The trilogy was quite accurate when it came to showing the rage and possessiveness shown by Mafias, but it did not deliver that well on the action aspect of it. It would’ve been great if we could see a little more into the life of Massimo as a mafia boss. Let us know what you think about the series in the comments below!