The older I get, the more I just want to shut my brain off and watch movies where bad things happen to teenagers who wander into a house they aren't supposed to enter, or movies where the cast is led entirely by CGI animals who are smarter than the real-life humans they encounter. I rarely want to feel anything besides good ol' fashioned amusement… but I was almost delighted to be sobbing during and at the end of Julia Jackman's dazzling 100 Nights of Hero, which flips the tragic queer love story trope on its head and gives us all something new to believe in.
The story, based on the graphic novel of the same name, follows a woman named Cherry (Maika Monroe), who is facing persecution if she cannot produce an heir to the throne with her husband, Jerome (Amir El-Masry). Jerome, neglectful and also unable to consummate his marriage (due to being attracted to men), decides to leave her alone for 100 nights with a fellow royal named Manfred (Nicholas Galitzine), in the hope that Manfred will seduce and impregnate Cherry on his behalf. However, this plan isn't as easy as Manfred thinks, as Cherry's loyal maid, Hero (Emma Corrin), is in love with her – and blocks him at every chance by reciting parts of an ongoing, fantastical tale of three sisters who wanted more than just marriage.
That ye old 'make me an heir or else' trope that often pops up in historical fantasy has never really done it for me, even when it's under the guise of humor (and especially not when it's in a bleak, nightmare fantasy world like Game of Thrones). I shut my brain off at pointed hats and cool architecture, and it's possible that I've just become curmudgeonly as I've gotten older. However, 100 Nights of Hero is so much more than that, and it wastes no time in making itself known. Right from the jump, it's visually stunning, borrowing imagery and color straight from the graphic novel and adding those glimmery finishing touches (like the way the light catches on Cherry's cheekbone, or the beautiful medieval guitar that Charli xcx plays in the garden).
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The film has all those little things I liked in fantasy stories when I was a little girl, like a quill scratching against parchment, stained glass windows that depict epic stories, shirtless muscular men dripping with blood in an attempt to show off their utmost heroism, beautiful women in dazzling cloaks and long hair that flows dreamily in the wind. But most importantly, it's quite literally a hero's tale, if the title wasn't a dead giveaway, and our Hero is a woman who dares to love in the face of a kingdom that wholly disagrees.
Queer stories are often tragic, and they either end with a devastating breakup (looking at you, 2006 teen drama series South of Nowhere, and 2013 erotic romantic drama Blue is the Warmest Color) or death (i.e. Lost and Delirious or A Single Man). I won't spoil anything, as I want you to head to the theater on December 5, but this one is different. There's magic here, and I'm not talking about the witches and spells and moons mentioned throughout the film. Cherry and Hero have a quiet magic between them that made me clutch my heart at nearly every turn – even in the most simple of moments. It helps that there is a chemistry between Monroe and Corrin that vibrates on a frequency I have not seen in a film in quite some time.
My favorite quote of the entire film (which has some of the most delightful and also poignant dialogue, mind you) might be simple, but it's the most earnest. Towards the end, Chery declares: "I was supposed to get married, have children, do needlepoint, I guess, and then die." May we all aspire to be more, to want more, and to push beyond the limitations that our families and society have put in place for us. May we all try to be a little bit more heroic in our day-to-day lives. Although I do kind of really want to learn needlepoint.
100 Nights of Hero hits theaters on December 5. For more on what to watch, check out the rest of our Big Screen Spotlight series.
