The Drama
Recently, I began watching videos about insane wedding stories on Reddit. My wife and I had some bumps in the road to our wedding back in 2015, but listening to these stories, I find myself profoundly grateful to have had the friends and family we did where, even if things were not smooth sailing, it all basically came together on the day. Our marriage has been much of the same, and I wouldn’t change where it is now. Charlie and Emma in Kristoffer Borgli’s “The Drama” are not so lucky. What they find themselves going through is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. And that’s saying something, considering some of the stories I’ve listened to recently.
This is Borgli’s follow-up to “Dream Scenario,” where Nicolas Cage found himself living a nightmare, even as it begins in absurdist comedic terms. Here, the film takes a shocking turn that turns it into both a dark comedy and a person’s worst nightmare, and it’s impossible not to see the insanity in all that we’re watching. A lot of people do wrong in this movie, but the question is a simple one- can we find it in our hearts to forgive someone if we find out the worst thing they ever did, and it shades our entire view of them?
Charlie (Robert Pattinson) is getting coffee and sees Emma (Zendaya) reading a book. He manufactures a way to talk to her, only to find that she’s deaf in one ear. They start to date, and eventually, get engaged. We catch up with them a week before the wedding. One night, they are out doing food and wine testing with Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and Rachel (Alana Haim). As the night goes on, and they drink more, a dare is posed- what is the worst thing you’ve ever done? We expect a fairly innocuous collection, but some of them are fairly disturbing. Emma’s is the worst of them all, and everyone is rattled, including Charlie. Are they going to get past this revelation? Is there a way anyone could?
One of Borgli’s most inspired touches in this film is the role of Charlie. Pattinson is effortlessly charming as the character, sometimes channeling younger Hugh Grant during the meet cute and pre-revelation moments. The great conceit is, what would a normal romantic comedy lead make if they found out something about their prospective partner that truly crossed a moral line? I’m deliberately not naming what the revelations are, but needless to say, they are quite triggering by how horrifying they can be. One thing we’ve gotten to know about Emma, however, is that she’s definitely not the same person that she was when she crossed this line. This might be my favorite of Zendaya’s performances, as she plays the lovely early scenes of the relationship with delight, and then the anxiety as she feels Charlie pulling away with vulnerability. This is a Rorschach test of a movie- if you found out something like this about your potential spouse, would you be able to have a reasonable discussion about it revolving around empathy towards one another, or would your relationship spiral like Charlie and Emma’s does? Even a few days later, I find myself contemplating my own answer to that question. “The Drama” doesn’t back down- it’s probably the most cutting look at a relationship going through it since “Eyes Wide Shut.” It’s haunting and hilarious in a lot of the same ways.
