The Drama is about a happily engaged couple, Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson), who are preparing for their wedding until a secret threatens to ruin everything.
Let’s go back to the beginning.
In a café, Emma sits reading her book when Charlie approaches and tries to introduce himself. But Emma doesn’t notice him. She’s occupied, playing some music on her left ear, and she’s deaf in her right. Charlie gets embarrassed, but Emma convinces him to try again. So they try again.
Emma and Charlie shortly then become a couple. Afterwards, Emma meets Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie). Mike is Charlie’s best friend and best man, and Rachel eventually becomes Emma’s best friend and maid of honor. The four of them get along well.
One night, the two couples open a bottle of wine and decide to play a game. Each person must reveal the worst thing they have ever done. Mike admits to using his ex-girlfriend as a human shield when a rabid dog attacks them. Rachel confesses to locking her childhood neighbor inside an abandoned RV’s closet for a day. Charlie facetiously admits to bullying someone.
It is all light and breezy at this point. Everyone is laughing and joking around. What a fun night!
But when Emma shares her secret, all of a sudden, the air in the room gets a lot heavier. Everyone is stunned and dumbfounded, especially Charlie, who begins to question everything he thought he knew about his fiancée.
It’s hard to review this film without spoiling a lot about it. I can’t tell you the big secret, but I will tell you that it’s a shocking one. It’s so shocking that I squirm in my seat every time they try to address it.
What makes it more than just a shocking discovery, though, is how well it serves the film’s many themes and messages. The secret doesn’t just shake the characters, it reframes everything we’ve already seen. The meet-cute at the beginning suddenly carries more weight. The little quirks we found charming start to mean something else entirely. And just like that, a film that opens like a romantic comedy reveals itself to be something far more uncomfortable and interesting.
It will also make you wonder how you would handle such heavy information about the one you will marry in days. What is even the proper response to something so terrible that you’d question whether it’s even a joke? Director Kristoffer Borgli has no definitive answer, and I don’t think anyone would have an immediate one either. What is certain, though, is that responding with neglect and hate only leads to a bloody end.
Anyway, Robert Pattinson and Zendaya are both really good here. To me, Pattinson is the most interesting male actor working today, and it feels like with every project, from Batman to Mickey 17 to this film, we keep discovering something new about him. He is constantly evolving and getting better at his craft. As for Zendaya, I’d rank this as her best performance yet, and that says a lot, considering how strong her filmography already is.
Needless to say, there is nothing to nitpick about the acting. Pattinson and Zendaya alone are more than enough to fuel this film.
The editing is another standout. The film fully embodies the show-don’t-tell approach: rather than having characters narrate or explain their memories, humor, fantasies, or hypothetical scenarios, it cuts directly and playfully into those moments. Simply, it lets the visuals do the storytelling. I love that. The technique works because it makes us feel just as disoriented as the characters. When a relationship we thought we understood suddenly becomes unrecognizable, we don’t just watch it happen. We experience it.
The Drama is a stress-inducing film, so if you don’t want to rip your hair out, stay away from it. But if you can handle the drama, then what’s store for you is a very well-made film. And despite how demanding and draining it is to watch, there is a real lesson about love and relationships you can take with you as a souvenir when it’s all over and done.
5/5