Josephine Juarez

Do you believe in second chances? “The Drama” might change your mind. A shocking character-driven story, it keeps you wondering “should I be laughing right now?”  

For anyone looking for a simultaneously hilarious and introspective way to spend your weekend, “The Drama” may be just the thing you’re looking for. 

The film opens with the first interaction between Charlie and Emma, played by Robert Pattinson and Zendaya respectively. After Charlie fails his attempted meet-cute, Emma asks him if he wants to start over.  

We quickly learn that Charlie is recounting the event to his best man Mike (Mamoudou Athie) as the pair perfect his wedding vows. This allows for the groundwork of the relationship to be laid smoothly as we go between both Charlie and Emmas vows.  

While I, selfishly, would have loved a bit more exposition on the relationship, I believe we’re given just enough information to understand both characters and how they operate in the relationship.  

When the given circumstances are that the characters are a week out from getting married, you don’t want them to feel like total strangers to the audience; the relationship needs to mean something. At the same time, we shouldn’t feel like we know what a character would say next or how they react when the film is a constant will-they-wont-they. 

The opening sequence lays out the stakes but doesn’t nail them into the ground. 

I think for a film with a name like “The Drama” the fact that I only had to keep track of four characters was a welcome surprise.  With the premise offered, it’s easy to see how it might become a spectacle film, but I can count how many people spoke on my hands.  

The next plot advancement comes when Charlie and Emma have dinner with Mike and Rachel, Emma’s maid-of-honor, played by Alana Haim. Rachel suggests that everyone at the table shares the worst thing that they’ve ever done. Emma shares last, leaving the others speechless.   

Emma’s response is “The Drama” that propels the film, and while the twist may be expected, it raises an important question; does an idea only count if you follow through? 

“The Drama” beautifully utilizes the small cast, which keeps the film intimate and character driven.  

To me, the dinner scene is a perfect example of something I loved about the emotionally charged parts of the film, which is that it felt like a play. In this scene I wasn’t focused on the cinematography, but the script and emotion that each actor was able to convey. 

However, for a film that focuses on its characters, I felt that there were a few inconsistencies throughout. For instance, Charlie’s “worst thing” seemed to be a bit of a cop out, especially when we’ve been shown that he’s willing to lie to get what he wants. His response left me wanting more from his character initially.    

After the dinner, Charlie spends the rest of the movie wondering if he really wants to marry Emma, which leads to the messy deconstruction of his character.  

This certainly makes up for what I was missing with Charlie’s confession; it’s when we see his character go from a “perfect partner” to a perfectionist who cracks under pressure. He begins to question every moment with Emma which makes the situation life threatening for him and laughably overdramatic for us.  

The film serves as a morality test, and Charlie is the perfect character to put through it. I couldn’t help but laugh at Charlies attempts to rationalize what he doesn’t understand, using Freudian analysis and second opinions to try and justify staying with Emma.  

This section of the film’s strength is a series of flashbacks to Emma’s childhood, where Jordyn Curet plays a teenage version of Emma. These scenes are some of the most absurd in the entire film, but they also give so much perspective on how Emma’s character got to where she is now.  

In terms of performances, my favorite had to be Jordyn Curet as Young Emma, which is interesting since her character felt like she was from an entirely different genre than the others. Alana Haim’s Rachel also stood out for her frustratingly realistic portrayal of such a hypocritical character. While her characters’ holier-than-thou personality frequently had me seconds away from accosting the screen, I couldn’t help but love the feeling.  

Overall, the film had moments of pure absurdity between thought-provoking moments that kept me entertained the whole way through. I would rate the film a 4/5 and recommend it to lovers of both satire and Socrates.