The Drama

Can there be such a thing as too much honesty in a relationship? That’s one of the questions The Drama tackles as it takes one of the most awkward and stressful times for any young couple — the countdown to a big, elaborate wedding — and ups the ante with an stunning revelation that could torpedo the entire relationship. It’s a meaty premise, one that its talented cast digs into heartily, and the film succeeds at generating tensely uncomfortable comedy for most of its running time.

As he prepares his wedding-night toast, groom-to-be Charlie (Robert Pattinson) recalls that his meet-cute with Emma (Zendaya) involved an undercurrent of duplicity: he awkwardly attempted to pick her up in a coffee shop by claiming to have enjoyed the novel she was then reading, even though he’d never read it. He cops to the lie on their first date, however, and she’s more amused than angered by the revelation.

Cut to the week of Charlie and Emma’s wedding, when they’re sampling food and wine options from the caterer with Charlie’s best friends, married couple Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and Rachel (Alana Haim), who are also serving as Best Man and Matron of Honor. After a few too many bottles, the conversation turns to “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” And then Emma tells them.

Her revelation won’t be spoiled here; suffice it to say that writer-director Kristoffer Borgli (Dream Scenario) has given Emma a secret both shocking and disturbing enough to make Charlie rethink their entire relationship, and whether or not the two should even get married. That choice is probably The Drama’s boldest move, but the film never feels exploitative; the characters and the audience have to sit with the discomfort and horror of it, but that horror is never brushed aside or minimized.

After Emma’s confession, all four leads spin out, from Rachel’s fury (if The Drama is like an extended episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Haim is the Susie Essman) to an upset Charlie clumsily attempting to seduce his assistant (Hailey Benton Gates). It all leads to an extremely awkward and brutally hilarious wedding reception where disaster looms around every clink of silverware on crystal, with the subtly insistent score by Daniel Pemberton and the tension-building editing (from Borgli and Joshua Raymond Lee) ratcheting up the discomfort.

More’s the pity, then, that Borgli whiffs the ending, because up until the film’s final sequence, he’s made the most of an uncomfortable situation. The director (and his cinematographer Arseni Khachaturan, Bones and All) know how to present a love-story Boston, complete with spacious apartments and cozy hang-out joints, and the cast finesses the rom-com beats (starting from that coffee-shop meet-cute), lulling viewers into expecting a charming urban love story and thus making the pivot to Emma’s reveal as disconcerting to the audience as it is to the characters.

Pattinson allows us to see both the cleverness and caddishness of Charlie; Emma turns out to be far more complicated and unsettling than the gamine we first meet, with Zendaya playing all those notes perfectly, but Charlie is no put-upon innocent himself.

The Drama falls into the category of “date night movie for people who are really confident about their relationship” — it’s either a conversation-opener or a door slammed shut for young lovers — but it might have achieved real greatness if Borgli hadn’t let Emma and Charlie off so easily. It’s a comedy of manners that seems to aspire to something darker and more relevant. In an era where terrible people in power either paper over their past mistakes or reframe them as triumphs, there need to be consequences or, conversely, the lack of consequences should be the point. Instead, The Drama shrugs off its terrible weight, amounting to a failure of nerve. This movie digs two complicated characters into a frighteningly complex hole and then, unforgiveably, offers unearned forgiveness.

Director: Kristoffer Borgli
Screenwriter: Kristoffer Borgli
Cast: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Mamoudou Athie, Alana Haim, Hailey Benton Gates, Zöe Winters, Sydney Lemmon, Jordyn Curet, Michael Abbott Jr., Anna Baryshnikov
Executive producers: Kristoffer Borgli, Chris Stinson, Amy Greene
Producers: Lars Knudsen, Ari Aster, Tyler Campellone
Director of photography: Arseni Khachaturan
Production design: Zosia Mackenzie
Editing: Joshua Raymond Lee, Kristoffer Borgli
Music: Daniel Pemberton
Sound design: Jack Sobo, supervising sound editor
Production companies: A24, Live Free or Die Films, Square Peg
In English
106 minutes