In light of recent American film releases, I expected Kristoffer Borgli’s “The Drama” (2026) to be a dramatization of a bare-bones plot, flirting with provocative themes to appeal to awards and headlines. What I did not expect was a production that will most likely be the romance film of the year.
The concept of the film is brilliant in its simplicity. Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson) are only weeks away from their wedding. One night with their friends, Emma reveals a disturbing piece of information from her past. As the title implies, a drama ensues. Caught up in the moral complexities of the new information and Emma’s souring social life, the couple attempts to navigate their shaken-up world in the lead-up to their wedding. I found that the script was particularly deft in building suspense. Anticipation is what drives the plot forward as the final event, the wedding, hangs over the audience’s heads until the very end.
The film’s visuals complement Emma and Charlie’s unraveling relationship. As tension in the plot escalates, the two so-called lovers rarely share the frame. The pendulum of distrust and confidence between them swings left and right. Unlike recent films from production company A24, visual utility is not sacrificed in favor of artistic pompousness and attempts to seem more avant-garde. “The Drama” supports its creative story with digestible visuals that keep the focus on the dialogue and plot. The film captivates the audience as the couple’s relationship unfolds, leading up to what should be the best day of their lives.
The standout performances from Pattinson and Zendaya add to the film’s momentum. Pattinson plays the stressed and volatile Charlie to great extremes whilst Zendaya plays the detached and somber Emma with a deft subtlety.
The crux of the movie is the wedding. As the event’s photographer remarks earlier in the film, “weddings are performative by nature.” At the age of 19, I’ve only been to a few weddings in my life, but I would definitely consider this somewhat of a truism. Weddings are, in so many ways, a performance that seems almost like a blanketing and whitewashing of any blemishes in the pair’s relationship.
Every couple shares compromised desires or half-baked mistakes that get ignored or glossed over throughout the course of a relationship in favor of outward displays of pure affection to signal something to those around them. What “The Drama” shows us is, at its core, what happens when one of those mistakes is uncovered at a very inconvenient time.
We see, throughout the movie, anxiety towards an idea of perfection and how the characters measure up to it. Everything in the wedding performance is planned, from the flowers to the dancing, yet the image of the perfect groom and bride is not up to snuff with the rest of the film. The characters, to no fault of their own, are confused as they simultaneously attempt to care about one another and the façade they have created.
What I think the film suggests, though, is the importance of letting go of the latter, of looking past the performance and truly loving one another. The film doesn’t need to make a grandiose or provocative statement — it delivers a poignant story that cuts through the noise of traditional Hollywood to deliver an impactful and affectionate tale of romance.
