Movie Review: #300letters

By billing itself as a “romantic comedy”, the Argentinian film #300letters is doing itself no favors. Though it has its moments it isn’t especially funny and it isn’t romantic. That doesn’t mean it isn’t good though. While director Lucas Santa Ana’s film does feature some of the trappings of the genre, it is really more of a drama that uses an intriguing setup to examine the ways that relationships are not often what they seem on the surface, even to those directly involved in them.

“Bro”-ish Jero (Cristian Mariani) and artistic Tom (Gastón Frías) outwardly appear to have a happy relationship and have amassed a decent following on TikTok showing it off. But on their 300-day anniversary, Jero arrives home to find Tom gone, having left only a box of letters in his place, 1 for each day they were together, in which he confesses his true feelings during that time.

Jero initially resists reading the letters, upset that Tom would end things in such a way, but his best friend Esteban (Bruno Giganti) urges him to take a look and so, still raw from the break-up, he begins. What follows is a look back at the entire run of their affair shown through a series of vignettes focusing on key moments, each revealing to Jero and us that nothing over the past 9 to 10 months had been what he thought, a revelation that causes him to understandably spiral further into depression as he struggles to fully understand why Tom did what he did.

Mariani is excellent in his role, ably going from confident and alluring to heartbroken and despondent, while Frías also convinces in a more confused and borderline villainous role. Jero may not be perfect (who is?), but he certainly doesn’t deserve Tom’s cruel disdain, allegedly in the name of “art”, and it makes it hard to feel anything but contempt for the latter character. That said, many of us have likely met people who we wouldn’t be surprised to see pulling a similar stunt, so the central conceit remains believable.

The script by Santa Ana and co-writer Gustavo Cabaña keeps things entertaining and the attractive cast is beautifully framed by cinematographer Pablo Galarza, both of which help keep the story from getting bogged down in its heavier themes about relationships, truth, and artistic ethics. Charming and thought-provoking, #300letters will likely inspire some viewers to reexamine their own relationships and question just how much we can ever truly know a person. The satisfying and hopeful finale reminds us that with the help of friends and a healthy dose of self-acceptance, we can overcome a lot of what life throws at us. ★★★★