Courtney Howard // Film Critic
Rated R, 1 hour and 46 minutes
Directed by: Kristoffer Borgli
Starring: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie, Hailey Gates, Sydney Lemmon, Anna Baryshnikov, Michael Abbott Jr., Zoë Winters, Hannah Gross, Jordyn Curet
As demonstrated by his previous features DREAM SCENARIO and SICK OF MYSELF, filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli is extremely good at handling thought-provoking, nerve-hitting dramedy. THE DRAMA, revolving around a soon-to-be bride’s dark secret, is no different. Still, it’s truly a feat how he shades his scenario as two sides of the same coin – both absurdist and alarming, hilarious and horrifying, comedic and caustic. His latest cinematic experience – which acts as a subversive, pitch black cringe comedy trapped in a screwball rom-com’s body – will surely have tongues wagging by the final frame.
Charlie (Robert Pattinson) and Emma’s (Zendaya) meet-cute begins on a rough start when he approaches her in a cafe to chat about the book she’s reading and nervously botches the interaction. Not only does he stumble over his words, having cheated on reading the book, she doesn’t hear him talking as she’s deaf in the ear in which he hits on her. The pair agree to a second start, which becomes a running theme in their romantic relationship, signified mainly by a disco song truce they play to shake off their overwhelming, nervous emotions. In a smart bit of foreshadowing, it’s an odds-defying move that Emma continues to see Charlie after she catches him lying about reading the book on their first date.
The two lovebirds grow close, bonding, canoodling and moving in together, and, in a few years’ time, get engaged. However, a week before Charlie and Emma’s wedding, things change during an intimate, drunken night with their married couple friends Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and Rachel (Alana Haim). Rachel has the bright idea for them to confess the worst thing they’ve ever done. As Rachel, Mike and Charlie share their tales, which range from fairly harmless to fairly despicable, Emma appears panicked, gulping down her wine. Upon her gut-wrenching turn the mood drastically shifts at the table, leaving all stunned. Emma’s unburdening of guilt stemming from something that happened in her teens (not spoiling this pivotal plot point) pisses off matron-of-honor Anna and sends the groom-to-be spiraling, trying to rectify how his beloved soulmate could ever be capable of such atrocious behavior.
While it may seem like Emma’s chosen the absolute wrong moment to confess her heavy, buried shame, it’s absolutely understandable she’d leave it until the last minute to bring up her dilemma to her fiancé as there’s never a right moment to say the bad thing weighing on her conscience. Her fear has imprisoned her for years and, even in the post-confession days that follow, she never acts flip about her revelation. She doesn’t want to drive Charlie away so the information that unfolds surrounding her youthful machinations is slowly divulged, playing out in flashbacks where teen Emma (Jordyn Curet) encounters a series of dementedly funny hurdles.
That, of course, doesn’t keep Charlie from psychotically unraveling, which motors much of the film’s zanier comedic aspects as he makes things worse for both of them. His obsessive soul-searching gets him into hijinks with Anna’s disabled cousin Sam (Anna Baryshnikov) and his work colleague Misha (Hailey Gates), which compounds into problems with her boyfriend Blake (Michael Abbott Jr., who delivers a head-butt for the ages). The wedding photographer’s (Zoë Winters) poor choice of words – that play as jarring, unwitting puns – coupled with the sound design of the popping flashbulbs augment the couple’s tense friction during their engagement announcement photoshoot, making the pair jumpy.
Borgli folds in metaphors and symbolism perfectly. Just as he suffers through his relationship, Charlie suffers through the pain of his uncomfortable wedding shoes, trying to stretch them out, only to ultimately have them give him a bloody toe and hole in his dress sock. The director finds a new way into stereotypical wacky wedding shenanigans utilizing dark comedy as a conduit. The provocateur follows the genre’s familiar formulas, but constantly turns the tables. The “you lied to me” moment arrives early in the first act and culminates in a brilliant, hysterical symphony of farcicality. Though there’s no big chase to the airport sequence, the climactic beat that trope hits is still utilized in an intelligent, more grounded way, echoing the couple’s meet-cute. He and co-editor Joshua Raymond Lee often cut away seconds before the narrative’s punches land in scenes to increase the situational humor and horror hitting.
Pattinson, who’s one of the most versatile actors of our era, delivers terrific work as a guy caught between a rock and a hard place. He pulls inspiration from leading men in classic Hollywood farces (e.g. Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart) as if he’s performing in a Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder or George Cukor film. He’s perfectly squirrely, neurotic and awkward while at the same time exercising complete control. It’s a joy to see his crash-outs. Zendaya delivers a grounded, delicately nuanced performance, efficiently sanding down her character’s sharper edges and instilling a good sense of empathy and vulnerability within. As for the supporting players, Haim and Athie are absolute perfection. They both shine in their movie moments as the audience avatars, with her disruptive bluster balancing out his calming Zen.
It’s clear Borgli wants audiences to sit and relish in the un-comfortability of these tumultuous situations. He also wants us to ruminate on what our spouses or loved ones might be hiding, what our own dealbreakers are, or if we even have them at all. Art shouldn’t come with warning labels, but it’s important to note that Borgli’s film deals with traditionally difficult subject matter, housing it in an unconventional milieu. It’ll assuredly stoke heated discourse post-screenings. Yet our guide handles the material with aimed precision, making it less about one person’s shocking reveal and more about a couple’s communicative problems.
Grade: A
THE DRAMA will be in theaters nationwide on April 3.
