Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson) have an idyllic relationship and are eagerly organising their wedding. That is until some friends suggest sharing the worst thing that they have ever done in their lives, whilst having a few too many drinks. Emma’s revelatory answer puts their lives into a huge spin that questions whether they can still make it as a couple, let alone as husband and wife. 

The Drama provides the sort of dream ad campaign for marketing teams everywhere. What is the worst thing that Emma has done that sends Charlie, and their friends Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie) into such a spin? In fact, as I sat down in the cinema to find out, I wondered if The Drama could ever live up to its promise. The answer, resoundingly, is yes. 

In fact, without giving anything away, the story she tells is perfect in that it will likely offend some profoundly more than others. It also has some perfect little hooks that allow quite a few questions about how humans interact with each other to be asked. Because the crux of The Drama is to provide a sounding board for a number of philosophical questions whilst wrapping it in a romantic drama that is very romantic, very comedic, but most of all hugely awkward to watch. 

The leads do a great job of keeping us on board with the drama of The Drama. Zendaya’s character has to tread a fine line as someone who does not want to dwell on something she did just over half of her lifetime ago. Robert Pattinson plays the quintessentially awkward Brit with aplomb as he tries to process whether this makes his life partner someone whom he does not even know. Whilst their best friends, played by Haim and Athie, deliver opposite viewpoints. Haim’s character is outraged, whilst Athie’s is willing to accept that time has passed. 

The questions posed to you range from how well does anyone really know anyone? How much should partners share with each other about their lives? How and when should we forgive, and indeed how should we react to people’s mistakes? This latter one is perhaps the most fascinatingly posed. How we react to a past event really does say a lot about our hunger as a culture for sensationalism. 

Writer/director Kristoffer Borgli has managed to deliver a film that allows him to essentially create an artistic thought experiment and deliver an entertaining movie. It is by no means perfect, occasionally leaning too much into formal artistic project territory, but it is funny enough and cringe-inducing enough to keep you watching.