The Drama

It’s the one everyone’s talking about. But is it just clickbait?

This deliberately squirm-inducing exercise pairs Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as Emma and Charlie, beautiful millennials whose relationship springs straight from a romcom meet-cute. He’s a speccy uptight Englishman with a boyish Hugh Grant ruffle to his fringe; she’s a gorgeous, partially deaf 30-year-old, who’s never fallen for anyone before.

On the brink of getting married, the couple are necking orange wine at a wedding caterer’s tasting, when their best friends Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie) drunkenly suggest a game: each person must confess the worst thing they’ve ever done.

Emma goes last and her bombshell has rocked the internet. If you’ve managed to somehow avoid what the big ‘thing’ is that so confounds poor Charlie, we won’t spoiler. But it pushes a very American pain button in a manner that feels at best shallow and misjudged.  

Because this movie isn’t really about the ‘thing’ at all. It’s about cold feet and how well we know the people close to us or want to – the irony being the movie itself doesn’t seem all that invested in its own characters, who rarely behave like plausible human beings you’d root for, despite the efforts of its sensationally charismatic cast. Charlie never looks inwards at himself and Emma remains a cipher. Alana Haim’s eyeroll is frankly the most honest thing on display.

This is not a film, it’s a talking point

Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli delights in discomforting audiences – as does Midsommar’s Ari Aster, who executive produces. Borgli’s previous horror/comedy Dream Scenario (wherein Nic Cage appears in strangers’ dreams) similarly took a daringly original swings at cancel culture. What he lacks is mature follow through, chucking out scattershot ideas (eg: is it worse for a mixed-race woman to think a bad thing than a white person to commit one?), while showing little interest in developing them.

There are a few laughs, and the first third is compellingly tense, largely due to the anticipation of the ‘thing’ dropping. Aside from Daniel Pemberton’s excellent, pins and needles score, the movie lacks rhythm. Yes, it got me thinking – but mainly about its shortcomings.

This is not a film, it’s a talking point. One whose true genius that lies it that you can’t talk about it if you don’t see it. So, dammit, go see it.

In cinemas worldwide Fri Apr 3.