‘The Drama’ review
The Drama treats its dark secret like an infection. Once the cat’s out of the bag, it infects our central couples’ minds with paranoia and self-destructive impulses. The more people they tell about this uncomfortable truth, the more widespread the destruction. Their lives fall into chaos the week before their wedding, affecting their friendships and professional responsibilities. Once you see how wrong things can go, you find yourself wondering if you really need to know everything about your partner. Is it better to hide such a glaring red flag for the rest of your life? How bad does your past have to be for your soon-to-be spouse to see you in a completely different light? The Drama encourages these types of probing questions, and I’m confident it’ll spark some interesting conversations among couples who see it.
The film starts off like a regular rom-com. There’s a meet-cute in a coffee shop, the couple works through early dating quirks, and we get multiple montages of them building a serious relationship. The film frames these scenes around the two of them working on their wedding speeches with their respective friends. They’re literally writing the story of their relationship to make it as charming and romantic as an actual rom-com.
This innocent setup makes the shocking reveal hit so hard. The owner discloses it in what seems like a safe space, where the couple and their friends reveal the worst things they’ve ever done. It’s relatable to see normal people reveal shameful things they did in their youth. It feels good to know everyone has their flaws. You’re lulled into a sense of security, and then the big reveal drops like a bombshell. What the couple thought was a safe space turns out to be a trap, and now they have to go through the rest of the film’s rom-com tropes with a giant monkey on their backs.
How can you pose for photos, pick out flowers, and work on your vows when the concept of your partner changes? The two leads try to fall back on the cutesy quirks that made their relationship work in the first place, but now everything’s poisoned. They litigate every past interaction in their minds, and they find themselves questioning if they even know this person they’ve been with for two years.
The film draws a healthy dose of dark cringe comedy from this wonderfully uncomfortable premise. You find yourself squirming as the soon-to-be newlyweds make things worse for themselves through irrational overthinking. The ensemble truly shines when exploring this nightmare tone. Robert Pattinson adds another great buffoonish performance to his growing collection, and Zendaya boldly explores an ungainly side to her star persona. Every supporting player locks into an obliviously cheery energy that clashes with the couple’s discomfort, with Zoe Winters stealing her scenes as the unfalteringly perky wedding photographer.
Director Kristoffer Borgli does a fantastic job plunging the audience headfirst into the film’s feverish paranoia. He explores a series of flashbacks detailing one of the leads’ troubled pasts, chock-full of perfectly pitched dark humor. Borgli never explicitly tells you which character is experiencing these flashbacks, putting you in a headspace where you’re not sure if you’re seeing the whole truth from the subject’s POV or the partner’s interpretation of what they’re being told. This unreliable narrative structure bleeds out into the rest of the film as it visualizes the characters' minds running wild with worst-case scenarios. Every cutaway to a character whispering in another’s ear or a projection of Zendaya in a risque magazine sends your mind into a tailspin.
The film excels so much at this portrayal of anxiety that I can forgive its surface-level commentary on other topics. The big reveal ties into a major problem we’re facing in America, and while the movie attempts to psychoanalyze the thinking behind it, it doesn’t go far enough in its dissection. It feels more like a means to an end for the film to explore complex relationship dynamics, which it more than succeeds at. I found myself thinking about how I would react in this situation and if people can truly change when they’ve had such horrific impulses in the past. Is there a point you reach with your partner where things have gotten so bad and embarrassing that you can truly start over with them? I’m still not sure, but it’s a hell of a fun slow-motion car crash to get there.
★★★★