The Drama (2026) || Movie Review

Someone once said no secret remains hidden forever. The moment you speak it aloud, it stops belonging to you only. It is no longer a secret and sooner or later, the world will hear of it too. That's the premise this recent release by Kristoffer Borgli is based on. I saw Zendaya on the film poster and streamed to watch it, not minding that Robert Pattinson is the second lead in the movie. He's not an actor I enjoy seeing in movies.

The Drama (2026) is an American romantic black comedy written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli featuring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as lead cast. The movie also stars supporting actors like Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie, and Hailey Gates.

The opening scene shows Charlie (Robert Pattinson), an art historian, enter a coffee shop and notice a young lady reading a novel by the glass window. When she leaves to get a cup of coffee, he moves to her table and takes a picture of the book. He looks it up on Goodreads then goes to introduce himself. He talks awkwardly but she doesn't respond, her attention on the book. When he goes to sit back, she turns and sees him.

Her name is Emma (Zendaya) and she's deaf in one ear hence the no response. She asks they try again and next, we see they are a couple in love and planning their nuptials.

About a week to the wedding, Charlie and Emma meet with their friends, Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and Rachel (Alana Haim) and they indulge in far too much wine. Then Rachel dares them to reveal the worst thing they had ever done. Mike says he used his ex as a shield against a dog that attacked them. Rachel admits me to locking a boy in a closet for a night while his family searched for him. Charlie confesses to cyerbullying in his high school days.

When the attention turns on Emma to say her ‘worst thing’, she gulps more wine and reveals something that knocks their socks off. This turns Rachel against her and makes Charlie have doubts about their upcoming wedding. Will this couple still go ahead with the wedding?

My Review And Rating

As the title reads, this movie is quite dramatic but in a way that turns me off. The plot is sound and deserves better execution and storytelling than it received. The main conflict is gripping and I really wanted to see how it would be resolved. But then Kristoffer Borgli raises other conflicts that flowed from the main and suddenly goes silent about them. That feels very dissatisfying.

The Drama portrays the modern day take on marriages and the preparations. There's much anxiety and planning involved but then the couple hit an unexpected snag and everything goes downhill from there. The cast's performance is outstanding in my opinion. They make this interesting storyline come alive but somehow along the way, they are hindered from delivering what many viewers would love to see.

The characters make very poor decisions, in their past and present, and struggle through making things right. Much as the lead couple try to start over, we sit through their struggles, anxiety, confusion, pain and consequences. Yet the ending feels unwarranted and a waste of our time.

I feel this movie raises provocative themes like morality, race and gender based violence but a runtime of one hour forty minutes is not enough to explore them properly, leaving viewers stuck somewhere in the middle. For example, we get flashbacks of Emma's younger days in Louisiana which brings up the issue of race and bullying and how the public view black women but Borgli did not delve deeper into these themes.

Zendaya's acting is excellent. She doesn't say much but her facial and body expressions convey her feelings. Robert Pattinson on the other hand is good at playing the pathetic character. He's very emotional in this movie in a way that almost destroys his relationship. As couple, their chemistry was not convincing for me.

The cinematography is not bad. The visuals are good but I didn't enjoy the cuts at important moments when the characters are about to divulge something. The movie makes up for this by giving short flashbacks that I didn't appreciate. Borgli should have let the scenes play out smoothly. If this was meant as a visual or filming style, it didn't work in my opinion.

Rating this movie, I'd give it 6 stars out of 10. The premise is great but the delivery falls very short. I wanted more from this movie because of the cast's performance but Borgli leaves many things unresolved to the very end.

All images above are screenshots from the movie

Poster image source

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