When we meet Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson) days before their wedding, they’re cute puppy dogs in love. The preparations are exciting, and their anticipation buzzes as they mull over reception speeches with their BFFs. It’s down to the wire: they’re trying to nail their first-dance choreography (with their exasperated teacher), finalize music, and choose menus.
While getting a little drunky-pants sampling wines with their married friends Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie), the conversation turns to a party-game question: What is the worst thing you’ve ever done? They go around the table sharing wince-inducing stories of past regrets. When it’s Emma’s turn, she seriously looks like she doesn’t want to play… but she does anyway. What she reveals, pulled from deep in her teenage past, is horrifying: an almost uniquely American planned act of violence. Except she confesses that she ended up not going through with it.
Her friends are shocked. Rachel is disgusted. Charlie is baffled and confused, thinking he knew everything about his partner. The mood shifts and sours. Remember, this is just days before the wedding. Everything has changed.
The Drama is a cringey dark comedy, as the couple awkwardly tries to stumble through the remaining days. Charlie spirals into full meltdown and paranoia, while Emma retreats into barfy regret (the film gifts us multiple anxiety-vomit scenes). They soldier on toward the big day, dragging the elephant in the room like a ball and chain.
Charlie becomes the main focus as he grapples with a level of emotional confusion he’s seemingly never had to deal while adulting. Pattinson is great in these moments. A scene in which he attempts (poorly) to maintain a pleasant expression during a wedding photo session is especially hilarious.
Emma, meanwhile, seems locked in a waiting game, unsure whether her partner will choose to walk away.
The Drama reminded me of last year’s After the Hunt, which also tackled a complex, polarizing topic that has dominated U.S. headlines. But where that film tried to give light to less sympathetic perspectives, The Drama plays it safer, focusing more on the reaction than on the (not exactly) perpetrator.
Like that film, there is a whole viewpoint/triangulation that is left untouched. The story never digs into how Charlie and Rachel’s worst past actions are directly tied to why people like Emma considered hers in the first place. That’s a HUGE omission, in my mind.
But perhaps that’s Norwegian writer-director Kristoffer Borgli’s intention. The film’s dark comedy has apparently already resonated with European audiences. The Drama‘s snarkiest commentary may be that American culture lacks the self-reflection needed to connect the dots, that we are often our own worst enemies when it comes to both emotional and physical violence, whether conceived or acted-upon. If that’s the case, it’s hard to disagree.
