The Drama is the third feature from director Kristoffer Borgli, whose film Dream Scenario was a strong critical hit and festival favourite in 2023. Like Dream Scenario‘s take on the mid-life crisis, Borgli takes a familiar situation but infuses it with something taboo and strange to heighten and shape the story into a dramatic dark comedy.
The film is about Emma and Charlie (Zendaya and Robert Pattinson), a thriving New York couple who are a week away from their wedding day. In a time with friends and family that should be a blissful paradise away from their work lives, things become overwhelmingly personal when a distributing turn threatens to throws both the wedding and the couple’s relationships into chaos.
The film’s strength is in having characters do and say a couple of things that most people would restrain their whole lives. This also may be where the film loses some people as, admittedly, Borgoli avoids the political aspects of each person’s identity. As these characters reveal secrets themselves to their friends and loved ones, they quickly become details that overwhelm Emma and Charlie’s daily lives. Now, it would be easy if Emma and Charlie were hesitant to get married before this reveal but Emma and Charlie really love each other. This event simply bends them to see if they will break and quickly it becomes evident that it will take more to break their relationship, even if the toll of their secrets clearly weighs on them internally. Thus, they both begin to question their actions and motives, and have to become more self-aware of their actions and words in a way they never thought they would.
The turn in Emma and Charle’s relationship focuses them on the past, as both have to open up to each others wounds and the different situations that they grew up in. It’s a tough thing to reconcile and the film heightens the humour and dread with the way that it presents Charlie confronting his surroundings. Everything seems to remind him of Emma’s past, household items, gestures, chores and harmless movements seem to put him off from the place that he wants to be mentally and he makes some questionable choices.
The film keeps up the entertainment value and humour with its constant cuts. As things are revealed and more details are thrown in, we often jump forward in time to when a character already learns something new and is having a vague conversation about what just happened. The film will then show us over the course of a scene what happened or what was said before. It constantly hooks us with a mystery, rarely letting us know what the characters do. And, when it chooses to let us in on a character’s secrets, it is because the other character does not know something. Situational and dramatic irony is the lifeblood of this film and it’s one of the best films recently to rely on these ideas.
The constant setups that the film uses make every detail shared between Charlie and Emma and their friends Mike and Rachel impactful. Once unwanted details are let out people begin to act very uncivilly in the lead up to a wedding where everyone is expected to act very orderly and happy. The editing and simple camera choices are very crucial to that. Its shot on film, but never in a flashy way as it trusts the characters and their situations will carry the day. It still proves itself a wonderfully crafted film that deserves its props. The Drama is made with refinement in a way that enhances every joke, dramatic beat and aspect of the characters performance.
Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as Emma and Charlie are a dynamic screen presence and, while they may not having as much electric or sexy chemistry as other iconic screen couples, you can see there is a nice intellectual and lifestyle connection that bonds them. They find the time that they spend with one another to be enlightening and to be a positive force in their lives. Both are mostly reserved. Pattinson as Charlie tries to keep his most toxic and angry feelings below the surface. The use of montage does require more subtle dialogue and acting as character keep thinking and visualizing rather than speaking about what is on their mind. What is particularly strong is both of the actors use of facial expressions and the way they deliver dialogue with sincerity and realism. Sometimes what comes out of these characters mouths is absurd. Even so, the actors play these moments with such sincerity that they make you believe that their character needs to say these things.
They need to know that their relationship is meant to last.
Both of them want to come to a place where they accept each other and the people in their lives will accept them but that seems like a daunting task. The performances are displays of earnest work from both star actors whose dip into taboo subject matter will naturally act as a step towards pushing what mainstream art can be for two actors whose films later this year will be big blockbuster films. This will not please every crowd, but if you become invested in the characters it is a gripping journey.
The Drama is in theatres on Friday, April 3rd, 2026.
