THE DRAMA Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Kristoffer Borgli
Stars: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Mamoudou Althe, Alana Haim, Sydney Lemmon, Hannah Gross, Jordyn Cruet, Michael Abbott jr, Zoe Winters, Hailey Benton Gates.
There have been many movies that have focused on weddings to explore important issues, flawed characters, family dynamics, or just poke fun at one of the oldest social conventions. Movies set against the backdrop of lavish or trouble-plagued weddings include the classic British comedy Four Weddings And A Funeral; the raucous romcom Bridesmaids; My Best Friend’s Wedding; Alan Alda’s Betsy’s Wedding; Margot At The Wedding; Robert Altman’s star-studded A Wedding, with its usual multiple narrative strands; and P J Hogan’s Muriel’s Wedding. Now we can add to this list the bleak black comedy The Drama, the latest film from Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli (Dream Scenario, etc).
Borgli brings his usual dark sense of humour to the trouble-plagued wedding between Charlie and Emma. In the lead up to the wedding secrets surface that threaten their relationship. Borgli asks the question whether a relationship based on a lie can survive. How well do we know another person? Can we forgive the unforgiveable and move on?
Borgli is a dab hand at making excruciating and uncomfortable comedies. Here he uses dark and cringeworthy moments of human frailty to shape the often-bleak tragicomedy The Drama. The film has a distinct European sensibility to it despite being shot in the US. And despite the presence of two popular stars like Zendaya (from both the Spiderman and Dune franchises, etc) and Robert Pattinson (from the Twilight franchise, etc), this is a film that is hard for audiences to warm to or enjoy. It may struggle to find a mainstream audience.
Charlie (Pattinson) is the curator of a museum in Boston. When he spots bookstore clerk Emma (Zendaya) reading a book in a café he is immediately attracted to her. Pretending to be a fan of the novel she is reading he approaches her and tries to strike up a conversation. The awkward meet cute eventually leads to a relationship.
After two years, Charlie and Emma are preparing to marry and plans for the wedding are well underway. Charlie has asked his best friend Mike (Mamoudou Althe, from Jurassic World: Dominion, etc) and his wife Rachel (Alana Haim) to be his best man and maid of honour respectively. Charlie and Mike work on their speeches for the wedding, thus allowing for a number of flashback sequences to explore the relationship in some intimate detail.
But then, during an impromptu drinking game of What’s The Worst Thing You’ve Done on the eve of the wedding, the foursome reveal some disturbing and shameful secrets. But Emma’s revelation shocks everyone and almost derails the nuptials. Before long, the quartet have turned on each other with Charlie, especially, self-destructing in slow motion as a result and trying to sabotage the wedding.
While the film begins like the typical light-hearted rom com, Borgli’s script cleverly upends the usual tropes of the trouble plagued wedding transforming The Drama into this bleak, unapologetically black comedy exploring modern relationships. Some of the subject matter explored here makes for uncomfortable viewing and The Drama may polarise audiences. Cinematographer Arseni Khachaturan has shot the film using a dark colour palette that heightens the grim and uncomfortable mood of the piece.
Zendaya and Pattinson share a prickly chemistry here and fully inhabit their characters. Their performances expose the flaws of their morally complex characters. Pattinson brings a nervous energy and sense of uncertainty to his Charlie who tries to process his feelings following Emma’s shocking revelation. He subtly projects Charlie’s internal dilemma. Haim makes the most of her big moments during the climactic wedding speeches as Rachel’s outrage and sense of moral superiority play out.
The Drama explores some provocative questions, but Borgli is not giving the audience easy answers. The film is distributed by A24, a company known for darkly comedic and often intriguing and challenging productions.
★★☆
