Film Review: ‘The Drama’ asks “Do You Really Know the Person You’re Marrying”

Wedding jitters are extremely common. Getting married is a major life transition, wrapped in social pressure, logistics and heightened emotion. But what happens in The Drama, directed by Kristoffer Borgli, goes far beyond ordinary cold feet.

Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson) appear to share a perfect romance, complete with a charming meet-cute and all the expected milestones. That illusion fractures when Emma reveals a deeply unsettling chapter from her adolescence. Not a minor red flag. Something that forces Charlie—and the audience—to confront an uncomfortable truth: love is often built on incomplete information.

When we discover something so profoundly out of character about someone we thought we knew intimately, it serves as a stark reminder: we can never fully know another person—not even the one we intend to spend our lives with.

We like to believe that intimacy equals knowledge. That after enough time, honesty and vulnerability, we know our partner. But Borgli’s film tears that idea apart. You don’t know everything. You can’t.

Charlie’s reaction isn’t just about Emma’s past—it’s about the collapse of certainty. The woman he loves hasn’t changed, and yet she has. He starts to see two versions of her at once: the partner in front of him and the stranger from her past. The surreal imagery—him walking hand in hand with her 14-year-old self—drives home a disturbing idea: when you love someone, you’re also inheriting every version of them that ever existed.

And not all of those versions are likeable.

Emotionally, Charlie’s journey mirrors the stages of grief—shock, denial, anger, bargaining, anxiety/depression. He mourns not a person, but the idealised version of the relationship he believed he had. While he ultimately reaches a form of acceptance, the path there is deliberately uncomfortable, with much of the film’s dark humour rooted in these cringeworthy scenes.

We’re told that love means acceptance—that your partner’s past is irrelevant as long as their present is good. But The Drama challenges that idea. What if the past does matter? What if certain revelations fundamentally change how you see someone? At what point does “accepting your partner” become wilful blindness?

This is where premarital therapy can help:

During the couple’s wedding dance rehearsal, one line stands out: “weddings are performative by nature.” The pressure to present the image of a happy, unified couple to friends and family can be immense. In that context, anxiety feels almost inevitable. More often than not, it isn’t about doubt—it’s the mind signalling: “This matters. Let’s take a closer look.”

Marriage represents the ultimate merging of lives. Even in strong relationships, it introduces new dynamics to finances, routines, long-term plans. The uncertainty of what lies ahead can naturally trigger unease. Premarital therapy creates a space to explore these questions openly, helping couples align expectations in a constructive and supportive way.

Ultimately, one of the greatest challenges in any relationship is accepting difference. Partners may share values, goals, and aspirations, but they remain separate individuals shaped by their own histories. The task is not to erase those differences, but to allow them to exist—and unfold—not with fear but with curiosity. Because the real issue isn’t just aligning on the future. It’s confronting the fact that there may be parts of your partner you may never fully understand and know. A decision to commit despite uncertainty, despite incomplete knowledge,

Ideally, just not in quite as dramatic a fashion as Emma and Charlie.