Spoilers ahead.
On April 3, the highly anticipated A24 dark romance film “The Drama,” starring Robert Pattinson as Charlie and Zendaya as Emma, premiered in theaters.
According to a previous report by The Post, the trailers for the film left a lot to the imagination. Originally marketed as just a romance, “The Drama” is more of a thriller than anything.
After a confusing press tour and marketing campaign for the film, here is what to expect.
The movie opens with a meet-cute between Charlie and Emma as he approaches her while she is reading a book called “The Damage” by Harper Ellison, a fictional title and author. She initially does not respond, leading to a reveal that she is deaf in her right ear.
Right off the bat, the direction and coloring of the film are beautiful, and the dialogue is also strong in the way it feels realistic.
The following scenes depict the couple engaged, planning their vows and final preparations for their wedding, which is just days away. Charlie’s speech is a beautiful dedication to Emma’s empathy and kindness, for now.
The dynamic between the couple is unique, but sweet. It is explained that Emma does not take things as seriously or personally as Charlie seems to; he is more uptight than she is. Emma is lighthearted, consistently teasing him and not taking it to heart when he seems frustrated.
Their relationship is presented clearly at the beginning and in a way that feels necessary to the plot in hindsight by the end.
From the beginning, the couple’s friend and maid of honor, Rachel, portrayed by Alana Haim, seems to have animosity toward Emma. She remarks at one point that Emma would look ugly if she cried at her wedding and quickly dilutes the comment to be a generalization about all women.
The comment clearly makes Emma uncomfortable and sets an unease around their friendship for the audience.
About 20 minutes in, the couple is at a tasting dinner for the wedding, accompanied by Rachel and her husband, Mike, who is the best man.
Alcohol is being passed around, and the tasting is being treated as a bar when Rachel suggests an exercise for everyone to go around the table to say the worst thing they have ever done. This is something Mike and her did before their wedding.
Rachel insists that they all reveal their secrets, while Mike is visibly hesitant. During the dinner, Emma admits that as a 15-year-old, she planned a school shooting. Going as far as practicing shooting with her father’s rifle and beginning to film a manifesto.
From the next morning onward, Charlie has visions of Emma executing the plan and begins to second-guess his relationship with her. He begins rewriting his speech with Mike, erasing any praise for Emma’s empathy.
The film as a whole is a moral debate. Filled with poorly timed jokes only the audience and the couple would see the irony in, it is unclear what the directorial team wanted viewers to feel.
In review, “The Drama” is an awkward watch. It toes the lines of which situations light can be shed on and questions what can be ignored when you love someone.
Director Kristoffer Borgli enjoys toeing the lines of this and wants audiences to comprehend the choices made for themselves.
“Borgli seems uninterested in drawing clear lines between right and wrong, preferring instead to let audiences make up their own minds about what is irredeemable and what’s not,” said Megan McCluskey in Time.
However, every performance is excellent. Pattinson and Zendaya’s chemistry is incredible, and Haim is the perfect combination of hypocrisy and anger.
Overall, while the topics covered in this movie challenge values, it is a thrilling watch.
