The Drama is a caustic dissection of a relationship on the rocks

Norwegian writer-director Kristoffer Borgli applies his trademark style – mordant, mortifying and, at times, fist-chewingly excruciating – to the minefield of relationships in his latest film. He produces something taboo-shattering: a picture that wears the glossy, groomed appearance of a romcom, but is in fact rather more troubling.

Featuring the highly photogenic pairing of Robert Pattinson and Zendaya as the soon-to-be married Charlie and Emma, The Drama is a needling, uncomfortable and caustically funny dissection of a disintegrating romance. It’s likely to be Borgli’s most divisive work yet. Which is saying something, given that his breakthrough picture, the macabre black comedy Sick of Myself, was a baroque exploration of self-harm and a toxic relationship between two of the most reprehensible, self-serving characters ever created.

On the face of it, Emma and Charlie seem considerably more likable than the monstrous attention junkies in that feature. Their meet-cute in a coffee shop depicts an adorably gauche side to the suave museum curator Charlie; their first kiss is endearingly chaotic. When Emma shares her feelings about him with her two best girlfriends, she cries tears of emotion. They are smitten with each other; beautiful, blessed, rich and in love. Their future together seems so bright – until one night involving a drunken game of truth with friends.

Giddy with pre-wedding nerves and catering wine, Charlie and Emma, together with married couple Mike (Mamoudou Athie), the best man, and Rachel (Alana Haim), the maid of honour, goad each other into sharing the worst thing they have done. It’s all fairly innocuous: stories of cowardice and low-level bullying. Emma, however, drops a bombshell. I won’t go into detail but, suffice to say, Emma’s confession – though it concerns an intention rather than an action – is shocking enough to upend her relationship with Charlie and her friendship with Rachel (Haim runs the gamut of hostile glares and derisive eye-rolls). This is a movie about challenging the limits of empathy – both the viewer’s, and that of the characters.

Borgli’s sharp writing achieves a precarious balance of provocation and bad taste. And the craft of the picture – in particular, its complex approach to sound design – is impressive. But the film’s wit, daring and overall success is largely owed to the formidable performances by Zendaya and Pattinson.

Emma is understandably distraught that her future may be derailed by something that nearly happened but didn’t. Zendaya lets only the cracks show through her character’s polished veneer; Pattinson’s expressive physicality as an actor has rarely been put to better use. He shows us glimpses of Charlie’s change of heart: his eyes turning wild, his posture growing increasingly cowed by the effort of keeping up appearances, as though his backbone has collapsed like a poorly stacked Jenga tower.

This is an American story, but the feature’s sensibility is perhaps more European. The malice in Borgli’s storytelling calls to mind the work of several other Scandinavian film-makers, especially Ruben Östlund (Triangle of Sadness, Force Majeure), another director who prefers to skewer his characters than cleave to a redemptive arc. To a lesser degree, but still evident, is some of the gleeful cruelty of Lars von Trier (Nymphomaniac) at his most unforgiving.

Borgli’s fascination with notoriety – both Sick of Myself and the Nicolas Cage-starring Dream Scenario touch on the tainted validation of celebrity – has shifted. Now he focuses on more fundamental moral questions: can we judge a person for the most terrible thing they didn’t do? And does “for better or for worse” still count when the groom is bleeding from the face, the police are on the way and the bride is missing in action?

Photograph by A24