Synopsis: A happily engaged couple is put to the test when an unexpected turn sends their wedding week off the rails.
What We Thought:
While watching The Drama I sat there thinking, “They really think they made something important here”. Despite the best efforts of its leads (Robert Pattinson and Zendaya) and despite being shot in my home state of Massachusetts, the film is too heavy handed to be something I consider watching again.
If you aren’t familiar with the film, R-Patz and Zendaya play an engaged couple just days ahead of their wedding. There’s a cold open where it shows how the pair first meet and you’re thinking it’s going to be a rom-com or straight up romance movie. I like both leads so I’d be ok with either of those options. Unfortunately the film takes a hard left.
If you don’t know what the movie is really about and want to go into it blind, stop reading here. If you already know or don’t care, it’s about a school shooting. Well it’s not, it’s about almost a school shooting and this is where it loses me. While tasting food for the wedding with another couple, the foursome decide to admit to the worst things they’ve ever done. Pattinson says he cyber bullied someone. Alana Haim’s character admits to locking a slow kid in a closet in an old RV. Zendaya (again days before her wedding) comes out and says she planned a school shooting, but didn’t go through with it. Everyone is appalled at something that didn’t happen. She had a gun and practiced using it, but another person beat her to it. She ended up becoming an anti-gun activist, but the other three characters all hate her now. They hate her for something that didn’t happen ten plus years ago.
The drama of The Drama comes from this new knowledge. Pattinson doesn’t even know if he should go ahead with the wedding. Haim’s character was the Made-of-Honor and she doesn’t even want to go. All over something that didn’t even happen. Haim’s character actually did something awful and admitted she didn’t tell the authorities where the slow kid was when a search party went out for him. She is the worst person there because she actually did something terrible yet Zendaya’s character is seen poorly? Get out of here. Haim should be ostracized because she did something awful.
The Drama was a box office hit especially worldwide. I can’t debate the money it made, but I’m curious if fans of the leads walked out happy with it. It was sold as a romance film or at least a rom-com and instead it’s a heavy handed, dialogue driven narrative trying to be super important, timely and relevant. On one hand I like that Pattinson called out Haim’s character for what she actually did. On the other hand there’s a scene with Pattinson (a British man) complaining about America’s gun culture. I’d watch another movie with both leads, but I can’t see myself returning to this.
The Nerds Templar 