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By Katy O’Brien.
Directed by Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli, The Drama is a dark romantic comedy centring around engaged couple Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson) in the weeks running up to their big day. Before this, the film starts with Emma and Charlie’s meet-cute, which gives way to the first encounter of awkwardness and second-hand embarrassment for the audience. Both Zendaya and Pattinson’s performances carry the film’s uneasy and restless narrative, both giving a realness to their characters by showing genuine intricate human emotions.
The A24 film engages in a clever genre switch, making you think it will be a happily ever after rom-com, with Emma working as a book editor and Charlie an awkward English museum curator, but transforming the film into a cringe-inducing, unsettling anxiety meltdown. Emma reveals a secret from her teenage years during a game curated by the engaged couple’s friends, Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie), where each person must go around and say, “the worst thing they have done”, which is what Rachel and Mike did before they married each other.
From this point on, with no spoilers, the audience are made to sit in the painful aftermath of this moment with the characters processing and dealing, whether good or bad, with the realisation that you may not know your friends and partners as you thought you did. Let’s just say it’s one of those films where you cover your eyes out of pure awkwardness and second-hand anxiety and embarrassment.
Borgli is most known for his satire, dark comedy films centring around reality with a touch of absurdity, such as Dream Scenario (2023) and Sick of Myself (2022). So, The Dramamight leave you feeling uncomfortable. You may think it’s made in poor taste. You might think it is amusing. You might be leaving the cinema sweating out of pure anxiety.
Although dealing with dark themes, Borgi’s film critiques our society’s relationship with violence, forgiveness and love. It shows how centring the narrative on one horrific act, demonstrates how it is being normalised in everyday conversation and how society now doesn’t quiet see the difference between a horrific crime and moderate low-level one.
The ending feels a bit blunt, with a few unanswered questions. The film suddenly comes to halt with Emma and Charlie at their favourite dinner, following the aftermath of the chaos and madness from the wedding. This conclusion makes you think about forgiveness, if you should let a person’s past define their present and leaving you with the question of do you really know a partner or a friend at all?
