Movie: The Drama
Director: Kristoffer Borgli
Runtime: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Genres: Drama, comedy
Rating: B+
If viewers go into “The Drama” solely based on marketing, they’ll be in for a major shock while watching director Kristoffer Borgli’s new film, but will be pleasantly surprised by its heard and humor.
“The Drama” follows the days and weeks leading up to the marriage of Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson). As they iron out the final details of their wedding and write the speeches they’ll give to each other, their relationship couldn’t be going better. That is, until an uncomfortable conversation arises between the main characters.
At a rehearsal dinner, Emma, Charlie, Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and Rachel (Alana Haim), their best man and maid of honor, respectively, begin to discuss what the worst thing each of them has ever done. Once it’s her turn, Emma reveals a shocking detail of her childhood.
While in high school, she almost did something completely horrific. Initially, the others uneasily laugh, assuming Emma is simply saying an offensive joke. But once realizing she’s serious, they quickly become horrified.
Charlie, reeling from this news, doesn’t know what to think or what to do. He still loves Emma, but begins seeing her differently, even recontextualizing moments of their relationship that flew under his radar. They attempt to carry on as if nothing happened, but Charlie can’t forget what he’s learned.
Hallucinatory moments of Charlie seeing young Emma in the place of the current Emma bog down his everyday life, at work and at home. These moments in the film stick out as unique and surreal moments that feel just right within the context of the film. But, Charlie and Emma continue on with their wedding plans as decided previously.
Jumping forward abruptly, the film culminates with the pinnacle of secondhand embarrassment, their wedding. Equally chaotic, painful and funny, the comedy of errors that is Charlie and Emma’s wedding is impressive in how efficient it is at one-upping itself over and over again.
The performances in “The Drama” are consistently great. Pattinson and Zendaya both excel in their performances as the soon-to-be-wed couple in crisis. Charlie's anguish and confusion are shown, not told, by Pattinson's blank stares and uneasy laughter. Likewise, Emma's shame and embarrassment are made tangible through Zendaya's career-great performance.
Aside from the two leads, many of the performances of the side characters also shine. Haim’s performance perfectly encapsulates the vindictiveness and hypocrisy of Rachel’s character, being sometimes understandable for the audience but more often than not entirely detestable.
While it doesn’t take up much of the film’s runtime, Jordyn Curet’s performance as young Emma through flashbacks is entirely moving and convincing.
The film's sweet ending is a breath of fresh air, thankfully avoiding cynicism that the film could have easily moved towards.
Whether surprising to viewers or not, Borgli handles the dark subject matter of the film very well. While the situation the film follows certainly feels absurd and shocking, it doesn’t come off as inconsiderate or brash. At the same time, the humor never veers into parody or ridicule. The absurd humor in the film, like the wedding DJ scene, is consistently funny, even if sometimes unexpected.
“The Drama” is a film of balance. Balance of its themes, balance of its performances and balance of its writing. Handled differently, it could have very easily veered into mockery and felt incredibly poor taste.
However, Borgli utilizes the dark comedy that has become a hallmark of his films in small doses, maintaining the balancing act with the grim subject matter exceptionally well. It tells a distinctly modern story of love and forgiveness that not every filmmaker could have executed so well.