“Hits the perfect tone to send the audience home satisfied and pondering about mistakes and how we have to live with our own, but also those of others.”

“She can turn any drama into comedy.”

You shouldn’t keep secrets from the one you love. Or should you? That is in a nutshell the premise of Kristoffer Borgli’s third narrative feature The Drama, which is, hidden underneath the mask of an offbeat rom-com, an exploration of forgiveness and understanding (or lack thereof) in a world that is all too easily judgemental. Riding high on the irresistible charm and chemistry of its two leads, Borgli’s latest starts to feel unnecessarily elongated at the halfway mark, leading to a forced final act where it all becomes a bit too farcical to sustain the humanity of the characters. But since it sticks the landing with an instantly classic scene in the genre and remains uncomfortably funny throughout, The Drama ends up as a winning formula that is a breath of fresh air even if it follows predictable paths.

The meet-cute, a staple of the romantic comedy genre. In The Drama‘s opening scene Robert Pattinson, playing museum curator Charlie, channels his inner Hugh Grant (they are both Brits after all) as he tries to chat up a young woman reading a book in the window of a coffee shop. As she steps away for a moment, he takes note of the book she is reading, then upon her return pretends to have read it as well just so he can start a conversation. She seems to completely ignore him, but there is a valid physiological reason for it, which the sound design gives away before the joke lands. Nevertheless, this meet-cute between Charlie and Emma (Zendaya) bears fruit, as we fast forward to the planning of a wedding. Separately, Charlie and Emma sound off ideas for their wedding speeches to their friends Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and Rachel (Alana Haim). Which anecdotes to tell, what favorite character traits to highlight, these are necessary questions in order to get everything just right for the perfect wedding to the perfect partner.

When the four of them meet for a wedding dinner try-out, Charlie and Emma share a shocking story about their prospective wedding DJ, and the conversation turns to secrets. What is the worst thing you have ever done, pitches Rachel. Probably not the best conversation topic, but alcohol has done its work. As Mike and Rachel go through their sins of the past, Emma uncomfortably shifts in her seat. Not because of her friends’ stories, but because of her own darkest hour, which she confesses (after Charlie totally blanks on his most awful faux-pas): as a teenager she planned a school shooting. For personal reasons, Rachel reacts as if stung by a bee. Mike, ever the conciliator, tries to calm everyone down. But what about Charlie? His bride-to-be just confessed to being an inch away from committing a horrendous crime. Is he marrying a psychopath? With only a week to their big day, a serious rift is forming between the couple, as Charlie starts to doubt if he really knows the woman he is about to marry.

Charlie tries to work through finding out this shocking detail, as Emma tries to go through her past to explain her flirtation with mass murder. The Drama shows this via flashback, in which a young Emma (Jordyn Curet, perfectly mirroring the mannerisms and facial expressions of her character’s older self) is fed up with being bullied at school. It is notable that the film shows compassion for Emma, and tries to understand the underlying trauma that leads to such heinous acts, yet the characters either cannot comprehend it, like Charlie, or can’t even be bothered to listen, like Rachel. Haim’s character is the hardest to digest, because even if she has a personal connection to school shootings, Rachel’s reaction to Emma’s confession comes off as extreme and unrealistic in a film where otherwise Charlie’s doubts and Emma’s shame feel grounded. This is exacerbated in the film’s final act, which mostly covers the wedding. By then, Borgli has had his characters go through a number of situations that have everyone on edge on the big day, but in such a way that the situational comedy he gets out of it feels forced. A series of uncomfortable moments is a result of Borgli’s machinations more than the organic collapse of all dignity he aims at. While these moments are still funny, the discomfort is too obviously designed, compared to the natural awkwardness between Charlie and Emma as the film’s second act goes through Charlie’s soul-searching and Emma’s attempts to salvage their marriage before it is even official.

It is in this middle part that the film shines, mainly because both Pattinson and Zendaya are at the top of their game. The former, all awkward British charm and befuddlement at his fiancée’s shocking past, excels in the smaller moments where he internalizes Charlie’s inner conflict while outwardly having to play along. His counterpart in the meantime shows that roles in which she has to play a fine line between feigned confidence and brittle insecurity fit her best. The chemistry between the two actors crackles even if the bond between their characters shows cracks, probably best displayed when they have to play the perfect couple in a test session with their wedding photographer the day after Emma drops her bombshell; the photographer’s incessant references to ‘shooting’ don’t help.

Athie and Haim make the best of their somewhat one-note roles, with the latter getting the short end of the stick; her character is more a plot device than anything else. Curet is a discovery, and in smaller roles Hailey Gates as Charlie’s assistant and Sydney Lemmon as Emma’s boss do fine comedic work, with Gates having a pivotal role in the final breakdown of the couple’s relationship. Borgli’s mise-en-scene is impeccable, as is the film’s editing, which is vital in landing a good number of the jokes. The film thrives on uncomfortable moments, reminiscent of a dialed down version of Borgli’s fellow Scandinavian Ruben Östlund’s high-wire acts, but there is a deeper and perhaps controversial message about understanding and forgiveness towards those who commit heinous crimes (or almost, in Emma’s case). There is always a story there, one we don’t care to listen to because of our immediate judgement. The Drama does not examine this theme too deeply, but it definitely shows empathy for people like Emma, understanding that nobody becomes a monster without reason.

And the meet-cute that started it all? It gets the obligatory bookend with the expected reconciliation and the confirmation that, yes, these two people are meant to be together. As Charlie and Emma, physically and psychologically hurt, run into each other in a late night hamburger joint, a clever comeback to a bit of dialogue earlier in the film, The Drama hits the perfect tone to send the audience home satisfied and pondering about mistakes and how we have to live with our own, but also those of others: how to put ourselves in the shoes of others and forgive their mistakes. In these trying times where judgement is doled out all too quickly, exacerbated through social media, perhaps this is exactly the message we need.