More mystery, less history.
The embattled lovers in “The Drama” should have heeded that old saw. Instead, they shared too much, threatening their nuptials and a whole lot more.
This coal-black romance asks some challenging questions, but the answers aren’t as enlightening as necessary. It’s still rigorously told with strong performance and an alarming amount of cringe.
“The Drama” is more awkward than Larry David squirming out of a “Curb Your Enthusiasm” jam.
Charlie and Emma (Robert Pattinson, Zendaya) are putting the finishing touches on their wedding ceremony. A wine tasting here, a dance lesson there, and they’re almost ready for the biggest day of their lives.
Until said wine flows a bit too freely, and Emma confesses something dark about her past. How dark? No spoilers here, but it’s sizable enough to dominate the plot.
And then some.
Charlie is stunned by the revelation, but he’s hellbent on going through with the ceremony. Is that the best path forward, or will their circle of friends convince them to hit “pause” on their romance?
“The Drama’s” hook is undeniable, but it’s really about a couple processing each other’s past selves. We all make mistakes, but what if some are so significant that it casts a shadow on our future?
How do we judge the actions that made our partners who they are today? Can everything be forgiven? Should they be?
That sounds like an “eat your vegetables” yarn, but “The Drama” is consistently engaging and spry. We slowly get to know the characters as they stare down the crisis, and their exchanges with strangers and friends alike shed more light on their morality.
Clever use of false memories and imagery spikes the story in the early sequences. That feels unnecessary given the massive twist in play, but the visual cues still enhance the material.
Emma is the more straightforward partner, a woman who shook off an early trauma to become a formidable partner. Charlie, by comparison, is melting down in real time. Pattinson’s performance is solid but a tad showy, but that may reflect his East Coast sensibility.
He’s a beta male thrust into a crisis he never expected.
There’s an elitism baked into “The Drama,” a sense that these characters can afford to over-examine flaws that others might process and move on. That alone offers a fascinating X-ray of upper middle class privilege, to steal the Left’s verbiage.
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The third act features a parade of hard-to-watch exchanges, and a few prove too precious to be believed. The film already teeters on the edge of melodrama, but these moments threaten to sink matters fast.
They don’t, ultimately, but they pave the way for a too conventional coda.
“The Drama” offer a bracing look at marriage, commitment and honesty, a tale that works best when the lovers are interacting with their closest chums. Best friend Rachel (Alana Haim) proves the most incendiary figure, judging Emma’s revelation more harshly than anyone, including Charlie.
Her provocative take feels a tad histrionic, something writer/director Kristoffer Borgli (“Dream Scenario“) uses to his narrative advantage. We’ll swallow plenty in “The Drama,” but when the heartstrings are plucked too hard, the film’s impressive facade falters.
We’re still committed to “The Drama,” reservations and all.
HiT or Miss: “The Drama” hangs on a stark revelation, spinning into a devious tale of love, commitment and neon red warning signs.