Drawn Together review
Cast: Ester Expósito, Hugo Diego García, Eric Masip
Where to stream: Amazon Prime Video
Star rating: ★★★
Two hot humans and a forbidden affair- what's not to like? The new Amazon Prime Video release, Drawn Together, starts off with promise but ends up somewhere confused and as a disservice to the genre itself. Starring Ester Expósito and Hugo Diego Garcia, the film, originally titled Enfrentados: Marfil, is adapted from Mercedes Ron’s 2019 novel Marfil. Directed by Óscar Pedraza and adapted from a novel of the same name, Drawn Together survives mostly because of the chemistry between its two leads because for the rest, its barren when it comes to emotion.
The premise
Drawn Together introduces the talented but slightly arrogant Marfil Cortés (Ester Expósito) arriving late for a ballet class. She nails the performance, and is aware of her talent in a way that makes her a bit snobbish. But why not? Her mother was a trained dancer and she has grown up surrounded by privilege and money.
The daughter of powerful New York-based Spanish businessman Alejandro Cortés, Marfil is then kidnapped suddenly. When she wakes up, she can barely register what happened. Her father immediately takes charge and assigns her a bodyguard who will stay with her 24/7. The attractive young man who has been given the responsibility to keep her protected is Sebastian (Hugo Diego Garcia), who wastes no time in showing even an iota of emotion. But as the sun rises in the east, so will Sebastian and Marfil grow closer- in an apartment where she has been told to stay.
What doesn't work
This is the hook with which Drawn Together draws you in, and the two leads share electric chemistry to fully invest in their yearning for one another. However, the film gets too caught up in hiding details, leaving clues to piece together later- while keeping it bluntly literal for its characters to come closer. One scene where Marfil keeps the door of her room open to see if Sebastian would enter has the background music blare ‘Desire’ as if that was not hammered in already. Drawn Together takes the clues literally, and slowly turns melodramatic in its style as the narrative unfolds in the second half.
{{/usCountry}}This is the hook with which Drawn Together draws you in, and the two leads share electric chemistry to fully invest in their yearning for one another. However, the film gets too caught up in hiding details, leaving clues to piece together later- while keeping it bluntly literal for its characters to come closer. One scene where Marfil keeps the door of her room open to see if Sebastian would enter has the background music blare ‘Desire’ as if that was not hammered in already. Drawn Together takes the clues literally, and slowly turns melodramatic in its style as the narrative unfolds in the second half.
{{/usCountry}}The result is a movie that screams erotic in design and shape but then cluelessly avoids it to manufacture mystery and tension. Drawn Together has so much going for it- attractive leads, forbidden love, espionage drama, and yet what it delivers barely manages to match only half of its promise.
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