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Writer/director Kristoffer Borgli is not a filmmaker who is afraid to make his audiences feel uncomfortable. Although it didn’t seem to be a point of discussion elsewhere, his last movie Dream Scenario was one that profoundly unsettled me and now he has made The Drama which has uneasy elements that are most certainly being talked about.

There is much in the press around the twist in this film and this is clearly something that is creating curiosity among movie goers, both regular and casual. I’m not sure that the marketing potential of this is what was motivating Borgli but it has it is definitely earning the movie attention and good box office receipts. 

The thing is though, it’s not a twist. It is a secret that is revealed early on and fuels the rest of the story. Calling it a twist is like saying Dorothy landing in Oz was a twist, or C3-PO and R2-D2 crashing on Tatooine or Frodo saying he’ll take the ring to Mordor. The place this film goes has largely been left out of the reviews though and I won’t reveal it here. All that is known is that it is bad. 

It’s obviously not a hard thing to look up if you want to as there are articles on the controversy its inclusion is causing. I think this was inevitable to some degree as narratively it had to be shocking. The movie revolves around a dinner party where four friends share the worst thing they’ve ever done and one of them makes an admission that shocks the others, including the man she is due to marry in a week, to such an extent that it alters all of their relationships and lives. It couldn’t be something like in Indecent Proposal that had audiences having the ‘would you’ conversation, it is something properly bad. The only would you conversation is would you ever be able to see this person ever again. 

Knowing what it is you realise it couldn’t really have been anything else. This isn’t a case where you’d immediately call the police on someone, or have to tell everyone else you knew. It’s pretty perfectly calibrated in that respect. It is unimaginably bad though and it is something with real world parallels, hence the moral debate about its use as a plot point in a film that, initially at least, plays out like a romcom. Personally I don’t think it handles the thing insensitively but it could definitely be triggering and if I was someone who’d dealt with relatable incidents I might feel differently. The one aspect I do think is problematic is the suggestion that someone who has done this (and what they did or didn’t do afterwards is key as well) could actually move past it and live a normal life. It is also significant that a different woman who confesses to infidelity appears to feel more guilt about that than Zendaya’s Emma does about this. This is all deliberate though.

In one respect the movie isn’t actually about this action though, it is more about the fallout of finding that the person you thought you knew, the person you are in love with, is not that person. Certainly this is what the film wants to be about but frankly it struggles. There are reminders of the revealed secret throughout but even without these it is hard to get past this truth as a viewer too. Certainly it changes tack after the fateful dinner and never goes back. There is humour drawn from the discomfort created but those laughs never sit easy dressed over the origin of what prompts the situation. 

Here’s the thing though, the other thing; the artistic and creative thing not the decisive plotting thing, this is something that gets you thinking and it makes the movie one you really want to talk about and that is exciting. Even with its contentious subject matter it isn’t a movie I’m cross at like I was with Joker; I don’t mind being made to sympathise with it’s morally dubious characters, I do sympathise with and care about every player and I don’t feel manipulated. Zendaya, who has portrayed people with darkness before, is actually perfect casting because she is so easily and innocently charismatic and Robert Pattinson is great as her troubled fiancée. He is essentially the protagonist and he does carry everything very well. 

I do have some issue with The Drama then, but I get that I am supposed to and that’s okay. I do rate it and I definitely recommend it. The performances are really good and the whole thing, rightly or wrongly, is managed masterfully. There is also some commentary here on the alarming arguable but actual normalcy of what Emma has in her past as well, and I respect that. Thank you Kristoffer Borgli for pushing my buttons.