After a mysterious kidnapping, Marfil is assigned a bodyguard, Sebastian, to protect her. But when the pair falls for each other, things get complicated. Prime Video’s Drawn Together has an abundance of violence and foul language; there’s also some nudity and a drawn-out sex scene.
What happens when someone gets kidnapped?
Well, it depends on what movie you’re watching. If the father of the kidnapped person has a very particular set of skills, then he’ll usually go, kick some bad-guy behind and rescue his child. In other films, the family of the kidnapped person calls the police and waits for a ransom call. Sometimes before the ransom can be delivered, the person who was kidnapped manages to find his or her way out of the scrape.
And then there’s Marfil Cortés’ situation.
As she’s jogging through the park on her way home from ballet class in New York City, she stops at a fountain for a sip of water. Someone approaches her from behind and grabs her. She tries to fight back, but then the stranger injects her with a sedative.
Next thing Marfil knows, she’s in the hospital, apparently safe, and two days have passed. Her dad didn’t rescue her. No ransom was paid (or even demanded). And Marfil spent most of the ordeal unconscious, so she certainly didn’t escape herself.
Nope, Marfil was simply released, dropped off at the hospital’s emergency room. She doesn’t remember much, due to the whole unconscious bit. But her dad, Alejandro, is spooked. He’s a powerful businessman, and he’s convinced his Russian associates are behind this—a warning that they can get to his daughter at any time if he won’t comply with their wishes.
So, to keep Marfil safe, Alejandro hires a bodyguard to watch over her.
Marfil is furious. She’s dealt with bodyguards before, and she just doesn’t like them. To her, a bodyguard is a constant reminder that something could go wrong.
It’s not up to Marfil, though. Her dad pays for her school, her apartment, her—well, he pays for everything. So until Alejandro handles the ones responsible for the kidnapping, Marfil is stuck with bodyguard Sebastian Moore as a shadow.
Although they’re both initially unhappy with their arrangement—namely because they’re both going a little stir-crazy cooped up alone in an apartment together—Marfil and Sebastian eventually start to warm up to each other. Marfil, scared by what happened in the park, asks Sebastian to teach her how to defend herself. During their training sessions, they start to trust each other. Eventually, they even come to care for one another, each putting his or her personal safety at risk to protect the other.
Marfil is close with her younger sister, Gabriela, who attends a boarding school in England. When Marfil suspects that Gabriela might be in danger, Sebastian offers to send one of his friends (another bodyguard) to watch over her.
Early on, Marfil tries to put a ballet instructor “in her place;” however, she inadvertently embarrasses another dancer in the process. When her mistake is pointed out to her, Marfil makes amends with that dancer, offering to help the girl with the difficult choreography so the teacher won’t single her out again.
When Marfil spots a friend in trouble at a party, she intervenes, getting that friend to safety and standing up to the guy who was causing the problem. Sebastian praises Marfil for her bravery, but he cautions her against starting physical altercations (as she had). He tells her that self-defense should be used to escape bad situations, not start them.
None.
If the title of this movie didn’t give it away, Marfil and Sebastian, though initially prickly toward each other, are eventually drawn together. Their training sessions become quite flirtatious, with the pair “frolicking on the floor” and nearly kissing on several occasions.
The couple does kiss eventually. And they make out on a few occasions before having sex—and that scene is drawn out, increasing in intensity and nudity as it progresses. Close-ups show Marfil’s underwear-clad body. We don’t see full-frontal nudity, but we do see Marfil’s bare rear end as they’re engaged in the activity, and we see lots of other skin and movements. The couple snuggles under the covers afterward.
Revealing outfits include tops that show cleavage, short shorts and form-fitting pants and dresses. Marfil often trains in a sports bra and leggings. Ballerinas wear leotards and tights while rehearsing. Sebastian removes his shirt a few times, and Marfil often ogles him when he does.
A woman invites a man to her bedroom for sex after he passionately kisses her; when he rejects the offer, she’s hurt and confused, and she cries.
Marfil and Gabriela joke that they both have “hot” bodyguards. Early on, Marfil tries to push Sebastian’s buttons by walking around their shared living space in a towel. Sebastian asks her not to do that since he thinks it’s inappropriate. When he asks how she’d feel if he did the same, Marfil flirtatiously suggests she’d be OK with it.
A woman kisses a man to make her not-quite-significant other jealous. Marfil platonically kisses a female friend on the cheek in greeting. (She later teases that friend about dating one of their mutual male friends.) A woman leans her head on a man’s shoulder during a movie; he wraps his arm around her shoulders.
Sebastian and his partner hide several cameras around Marfil’s apartment for surveillance, but he doesn’t tell her about them. When the partner suggests putting cameras in Marfil’s room (for security, not anything unseemly), Sebastian refuses, stating that they are not voyeurs.
A man rubs up against a nearly unconscious woman at a party, kissing her and audibly getting himself worked up. The woman’s friends show up before he can do anything worse, though. When Marfil tells him off, he gets aggressive, blaming the victim for drinking too much, making lewd comments at Marfil and even trying to grab her. She uses some self-defense moves to fend him off, but that only makes him more aggressive. Luckily, the man is stopped when Sebastian shows up and hits him in the face with a door, knocking the guy unconscious.
The scene where Marfil gets kidnapped is pretty scary. As the attacker wraps his arms around Marfil’s neck, the camera closes in on her face, increasing the volume of her racing heartbeat and panicked breathing. We never see the attacker either, which actually makes the whole scene feel like it’s happening from Marfil’s perspective.
Marfil isn’t harmed by the kidnappers, but she recalls being locked in a cold, dark place, fading in and out of consciousness.
Someone does try to harm Marfil later, however. Gunmen rain bullets down on Marfil’s apartment, with a sniper managing to hit Sebastian in the arm. Sebastian and Marfil flee to the stairwell where more gunmen fire weapons. Sebastian dispatches several of these men with point-blank shots to the head (and accompanying blood spatters). And eventually, his partner arrives on the scene to help them escape.
Marfil speeds down a countryside road in a car, only to realize that the car’s brake lines have been cut. She navigates oncoming traffic before purposely swerving into a large dirt pile at a construction site (with some construction workers leaping out of the way). The driver and her passenger are bruised and shaken but otherwise unharmed. (The car belonged to Alejandro, so it’s suspected that he was the target, not Marfil.)
We learn that Marfil’s mother died in a similar manner. Someone had cut the brake lines of her car, so she purposely swerved into a barrier. However, in that case, while the passenger was unharmed, Marfil’s mother was killed.
We also learn that someone tried to kill his enemy by blowing up the man’s private plane. And the explosion indeed killed 20 people.
A man gets ambushed at his home: He walks downstairs to find that every member of his staff, including bodyguards, butlers and maids, has been shot through the head. Later on, someone finds the man’s body shot in a similar manner in the trunk of a car.
Early on, Marfil starts shoving Sebastian around to provoke him. He puts her in a chokehold to stop her before releasing her and apologizing. Marfil is clearly shaken since it’s the same way the kidnapper grabbed her. However, she doesn’t get upset; she asks Sebastian to teach her the move (and how to counter it) so it can’t be used against her again. During subsequent lessons, we see Marfil knocked to the floor a lot, but she always gets back up to continue training.
Several guys at a party try to start a fight with Sebastian and a male friend of Marfil’s. Sebastian removes Marfil from the situation before returning to fight. We don’t see what happens, but he later ices his hand, suggesting he doled out a few punches.
[Note: This is a Spanish-language film with the option for English dubbing or subtitles.]
There are roughly 20 f-words and six s-words. God’s name is misused a few times with a couple of possible pairings with “d–mit.” “A–hole,” “b–tard,” “b–ch,” “d–mit” and “h—” are all used a few times as well. A woman is called a “whore.”
A man flips his middle finger at his friend.
Several college-age students, including Marfil, drink wine and beer at a party. Some partygoers sip from red plastic cups. We hear that one of Marfil’s friends was handing out shots, and we see that woman heavily inebriated just a little later. Characters drink alcohol in other scenes and settings.
Sebastian’s partner smokes cigarettes throughout the movie.
A police detective suggests that Marfil wound up in the hospital not because she was drugged and kidnapped but because she got drunk, took drugs and didn’t want to tell her dad the truth.
Marfil lies on several occasions. She even coerces her sister into lying for her. Alejandro apologizes for Marfil’s initial rudeness to Sebastian, stating that she has “her mother’s temper.” Marfil says her dad hasn’t let her practice ballet ever since her mom (who was a professional ballerina) died. She’s been secretly attending classes for years, and she asks Sebastian not to reveal her secret.
A dance instructor belittles a ballerina for not knowing the choreography to a piece. She then calls out Marfil for arriving to class late. Marfil responds in a rude way, and the teacher tells Marfil that she should improve her attitude.
When Marfil wakes up in the hospital, a detective questions her about the kidnapping. However, he says that since no ransom was demanded—and since Marfil was returned unharmed—the police do not classify the event as a kidnapping and will not investigate further.
Much of the plot revolves around revenge. Without giving away too many spoilers, Alejandro’s business dealings are rarely, if ever, above board. It’s earned him several enemies and resulted in the deaths of loved ones on both sides.
On that same note, when government officials get involved in Alejandro’s case, they lie and deceive to achieve their own ends. It appears that someone gets framed for a crime.
Prime Video’s Drawn Together is based on the book Marfil by Mercedes Ron, and it’s the first in the two-part Enfrentados (meaning opposing or conflicting) series. As of writing, it’s the No. 5 film on Prime in the United States—so it’s a pretty good bet that Part 2 is on the horizon.
But that popularity shouldn’t fool discerning families. The film is rated TV-MA, and if it was showing in theaters, it would certainly have earned an R rating from the MPA.
The violence isn’t out of the realm of what we see in most R-rated action flicks—and neither is the language, for that matter, which includes several uses of the f-word.
However, the romance scenes take this film to that R-rated level as well. Early on, Marfil and Sebastian’s relationship feels sensual and intimate, but Sebastian at least tries to keep his distance. However, once he gives in to his feelings, things escalate quickly, culminating in a drawn-out sex scene with lots of skin and some backside nudity.
Mixing this sort of steamy romance with fast-paced action scenes is sure to attract an audience. But that doesn’t mean that audience should be gathering together to watch it. While entertaining, it normalizes premarital sex and profanity. And though there’s a cautionary note to women about jumping into fistfights with bigger, stronger men, Drawn Together still thrusts Marfil into situations that are dangerous and life-threatening.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
