The Drama is a dark rom-com that follows an engaged couple named Charlie and Emma. Leading up to the wedding, the couple’s relationship is put to the test when a shocking revelation is brought to the forefront. As this revelation takes a toll on the couple and everyone in proximity to them, it stirs up a number of unfortunate circumstances that could derail the pending nuptials.

Blissful Blows

The Drama evolves around Charlie and Emma, who first meet two years before the film takes center stage, and their encounter is awkward and disingenuous in an alluring sense. This moment leads to two years of happiness and an engagement that has been flaunted as momentous. As their wedding approaches, they find someone involved in their wedding doing something that is disturbing to the couple. This moment sticks with them as they head to dinner with their married friends Rachel and Mike. This moment prompts them to play a game where they tell a story about the worst thing they have done. Everyone goes around the table from Mike to Rachel to Charlie, but when it gets to Emma’s confession, there is a huge shift that dims the entire light of the dinner. 

This moment at the dinner table is the catalyst for all of the drama. Everyone around Emma becomes hysterical, overly hypocritical, and psychologically warped. Everyone around her, from that point on, looks at her differently, and not as a human who has grown or changed for something that happened years ago and didn’t come to fruition. As an audience member, it feels like there is false outrage for how Emma is treated in this film. By the end, she is the one who must be examined further as she rises above spontaneous combustion. The film works as a commentary on semantics, and, giving the benefit of the doubt from a cultural perspective, through the lens of a cancel culture critique. This works well because there really hasn’t been a film in recent times that has tested the cancel culture narrative. Even more so, the narrative is focused, and there is blame to be placed on all four of the leads, and it is layered beyond the source material, which is soothing to the interactive film-going experience. 

Vile Vows

Kristopher Borgli’s direction is heavily predicated on the dialogue showcased throughout the film. Every line uttered plays a part in the grand scheme of pointing blame. The situation and circumstances take on a life of their own and help bring the characters closer to the revelation that has changed the course of their relationships with one another. The fear that comes from these revelations haunts the characters in a way that unveils who they actually are, aside from what they portray through a sense of good morals, which is far from the truth. 

Zendaya’s portrayal of Emma is beyond understated, especially after she reveals her darkest moment. She flies under the radar while bearing the isolation others close to her have forced her into. With Zendaya understanding this, she really plays into the looming as an enigma of fear when it comes to those close to her, especially her fiancé, Charlie. By the end, it feels as though Zendaya never really had to prove herself to the audience because everything she did in this film, in comparison to those around her, wasn’t based on impulsiveness. 

When it comes to the sole narrative, Robert Pattinson’s Charlie takes over the film narrative. Watching the film is like watching Beau is Afraid, only leading up to a wedding where he is questioning who his bride actually is. In the beginning, he’s unsure and hesitant about many things, but after his fiancée spills her darkest secret, only then does he begin to find himself and his place in the relationship.