By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
LOVE, LIES, AND SECRETS SURROUND "THE DRAMA"
"The Drama," from director/writer
Kristoffer Borgli ("Dream Scenario"), isn't your typical romantic comedy, and that's exactly why it works.
Bolstered by the compelling pairing of Robert Pattinson ("Mickey 17") and Zendaya ("Dune: Part Three"), the film transforms what could have been a conventional love story into something far more unsettling: a dark, cautionary tale about intimacy, relationships, and truth.
It's a thin line between love and hate and even love and lust. Emma Harwood (Zendaya), a bookstore clerk, and Charlie Thompson (Pattinson), a British museum director, soon discover just how fragile that line can be as their relationship exposes the secrets, contradictions, and emotional minefields that come with truly knowing another person.
What begins with an awkward but charming cafe encounter hinged on a misunderstanding about Emma's hearing sets the tone for a film deeply invested in the nuances of human connection.
Borgli allows moments to unfold with a natural, almost uncomfortable rapport, giving the audience time to sit with silences and missteps. As Emma and Charlie's situationship progresses into engagement, the film shifts from romantic curiosity into something more probing and unsettling, suggesting early on that this love story won't follow a traditional path.
That unease crystallizes during a dinner conversation that Emma and Charlie have with their friends Rachel (an excellent Alana Haim, ("One Battle After Another"), and Mike (a terrific Mamoudou Athie, "Kinds of Kindness").
The evening spirals into a confessional game of moral one-upmanship. It's here that "The Drama" reveals its boldest instincts and its most divisive. Each person exposes a dark chapter from their past, culminating in Emma's deeply disturbing revelation about a violent plan she abandoned as a teenager. It horrifies Rachel.
The film aims to wrestle with forgiveness, identity, and whether people can truly outgrow their worst impulses. At times, it's gripping. At others, it feels like the narrative is straining to escalate shock value rather than letting its themes breathe organically.
Still, "The Drama's" commitment to character is undeniable. Zoe Winters ("Materialists"), who plays a persnickety wedding photographer, Hailey Gates ("Marty Supreme"), and Michael Abbott Jr. ("Hell House") add spark and are given space to emerge as intriguing, fully realized individuals.
Their reactions--ranging from empathy to outright rejection--raise the emotional stakes that ripple beyond the central couple. These relationships, especially as tensions mount through infidelity, fractured friendships, and a wedding day that unravels into chaos, ground the film with a sense of realism.
By the time the story reaches its final moments, Borgli attempts to bring things full circle with a quiet, almost surreal reset between Emma and Charlie. It's a contemplative ending that echoes the film's opening, though it kind of feels a bit too neat given the emotional wreckage that precedes it.
"The Drama" reveals a messy but compelling exploration of love's darker corners and rises above the rom-com fray even when its ambition occasionally outpaces its execution.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays at 5:17 p.m. and 6:47 p.m. on radio station KFBK 93.1 FM and 1530 AM.
Take A Look At This Trailer For
"THE DRAMA"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
