Film Hedonist

Can love conquer everything? Can we truly know the person we’re prepared to spend the rest of our lives with? That’s exactly what soon-to-be newlyweds Charlie and Emma must find out before the end credits roll.

When Charlie Met Emma

At first glance, the protagonists’ relationship seems carefree and almost perfect. Almost — because their first meeting comes across as slightly unsettling, and Charlie is saved not only by Robert Pattinson’s looks but also by his thick British accent (anyone less attractive would have fared considerably worse). Almost — because his wedding vow walks a fine line between touching and genuinely inappropriate (imagine: your partner wanting to share the details of your intimate life at the altar).

But, at least on paper, they love each other unconditionally… until a drinking game with friends forces the bride Emma (Zendaya) to reveal a secret from her past. A secret unsettling enough to instantly send the entire group into a tailspin and throw the wedding plans into jeopardy.

Her Dark Materials

Kristoffer Borgli — the Norwegian director who gained wide recognition with Dream Scenario starring Nicolas Cage — has a habit of making his protagonists the victims of their own actions, deploying the most grotesque means to do so.

Whether it’s Signe from the sharp and bleak Sick of Myself, or Charlie in The Drama, Borgli’s characters maybe could stop and ask themselves “What on earth am I doing?”, but instead, like a train hurtling toward a cliff’s edge, they barrel toward catastrophe, and we’re here solely to witness the inevitable.

Yes, Borgli raises important questions (is intent as culpable as the act itself? Can people be judged for their thoughts alone? Do we genuinely believe people are capable of change? Is love nothing more than a performance we put on for others?) — but to introduce them he chooses subject matter that is still too charged to be approached with a cool head.

Whether intentional or not, the film immediately splits its audience in two: for some, the revealed truth is offensive and still a taboo for humour; for others, it feels like an argument so remote, the main conflict is nothing more than “A storm in a teacup” and therefore the characters’ furious reactions seem disproportionate.

There are plenty of terrible things in the world Borgli could have chosen for Emma and still made the same film, not only without losing an ounce of quality or tension, but also levelling the playing field for how different audiences can experience it. The shock value ultimately fails to conceal the lack of time and effort invested in developing Emma as a character.

The Ensemble

Nearly all the performances, including the supporting roles, are strong and sustain the film at the right pitch of intensity. Robert Pattinson, who has not let us down for several decades running, once again delivers a layered and precise performance, shouldering a large share of The Drama on his own.

But it’s impossible not to wonder what might have been with someone else in the lead female role. Zendaya (beautiful and at the peak of her fame, seemingly never off our screens) shows promise in the near-rom-com opening scenes, but never crosses the threshold beyond sterile, monotone acting, drifting apathetically from frame to frame and reducing Emma from the center of conflict to a supporting role.

Inevitably, and to considerable regret, she is outshined by nearly the entire cast by the film’s end and most notably by Zoë Winters, who once again takes command of the screen within the first thirty seconds, primarily through her deadpan delivery that sends the audience into a tearful laughter.

Also worth singling out is Alana Haim. For the skeptics — watch and be converted. Her Rachel is the kind of friend who makes enemies redundant — a character possessed of something close to righteous fury, ready to launch a crusade against her close girlfriend the moment the opportunity presents itself. Despite limited screen time, Haim takes us from love (lasting roughly half a second) to outright hatred of Rachel without missing a single beat.

Everything else in the film is beyond reproach. This is excellent, masterfully crafted cinema — American in its story, but shot through a Scandinavian filter: intimate, precise, and clear-eyed about what it wants to show.

Conclusion

In the end, the question of whether love can conquer everything is left to the viewer. The film never intended to answer its own questions, leaving the ending open to interpretation.

On my way home, I couldn’t shake the feeling that The Drama is the millennial rom-com our generation actually deserves: cynical, nearly nihilistic, yet strangely hopeful in the way it looks at relationships in an age of chaos and uncertainty.

We can no longer pretend that the storylines of the late 90s and early 2000s are still possible. Love is not as simple of an adventure as Matthew McConaughey’s characters would have us believe.

Sometimes love is nothing more than blind faith that it’s always possible to start over.