With excellent performances from Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, The Drama is a darkly funny and layered relationship drama that explores love, guilt, and whether people truly can change.
Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama revolves around engaged couple Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson) in the lead-up to their wedding day. The story’s catalyst arrives during a dinner with their best man and maid of honour. A few drinks in, someone poses a dangerous question: What is the worst thing you’ve ever done?
One by one they reveal their darkest secret until Emma gives her answer – and it’s a pretty shocking confession that throws the next few days into chaos. This revelation is expertly crafted by Borgli to evoke an entire spectrum of reactions from the characters, as well as the audience.
It’s a testament to Borgli’s skill as a writer-director that the big reveal is not the film’s main focus. Where The Drama truly excels is not in the taboo subject itself, but in what follows. Instead, it delves into the human experience, examining how quickly our perception of someone can change once we learn who they really are – or who we think they are.
Th film is much more interested in asking: What do you do when your loved one may not be who you thought they were? Do our past sins matter? Can people change? And what determines whether someone is given grace or not? There’s no answers to any of this in here, instead forcing the audience to sit in the moral complexity of it all.
It is a dark film full of tensions which is to be expected considering the subject matter but it’s also very funny. That’s where you have to appreciate not only the writing but the acting on display here; it’s a very tight screenplay that is only elevated by Zendaya and Robert Pattinson’s performances – they both thrive here when exchanging dialogue and truly showcase just how far they’ve come in their careers. They’re likeable, endearing and you’re ultimately rooting for them despite watching it all go wrong.
The Drama will likely be a divisive film, but it’s one that is undeniably ripe for discussion. It uses its central premise not for shock value, but to dig into bigger questions about love, empathy, and whether people are truly capable of change. Much of the film is spent with its characters battling themselves, trying to reconcile what they want with what is expected of them by the people around them.
By the end, the title The Drama feels particularly fitting. Much like the wedding preparations that frame the story, their relationship often feels performative – with two people playing roles, never fully seeing each other for who they really are. It’s only when everything comes crashing down that they are finally forced to confront the truth of who they are, both as individuals and as a couple, and decide whether they truly deserve a second chance.
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