I cant count on both hands the number of weddings I’ve smiled through while knowing damn well that the bride and groom were going to destroy one another in due time. I can count on the exact same cynical hands how many times those nuptials did indeed end in mutual destruction. Yet there’s something about the pageantry and spectacle of a wedding that makes the sacramental event so much fun, giving the couple at its center a sheen of romantic hope. The speeches! The tears! The first dance! It’s a maximalist show of romance and logistics, and I both love and hate it. I believe in it wholeheartedly and I also regard it with intense cynicism (to be fair, I’ve also witnessed plenty of weddings where the love was real and the couple lived happily ever after — but those are not nearly as fun to write about).
Note: If I’m ever on Subway Takes, I plan to suggest that married couples who don’t make it to the five year mark should be responsible for a partial refund on all wedding gifts, if the gift giver so chooses to accept.
Anywho,
Nobody explores the human interaction with the spotlight with more wit, wisdom, and a dark comic streak than Kristoffer Borgli. His previous films Sick of Myself and Dream Scenario both place their protagonist into very public focus, exploring the fallout of attention both wanted and unwanted, tearing away for these characters the artifice that even the most honest among us sport on the reg.
The story starts with a little white lie: Charlie (Robert Pattinson) sees Emma (Zendaya) reading a book at a coffee shop. He’s never read the book, but he quickly researches it on Goodreads and attempts to strike up a conversation. Long story short, it works, and in the present day, the couple has an absolutely ideal relationship … on the surface. They appear to love one another, and anyone, even my cynical ass, would be supportive of their upcoming wedding. The event is weeks away, so the couple is working overtime to get all the pieces in place: DJ, food menu, drink list, choreographed dance, etc.
So here’s where the review gets difficult. There’s a buzz surrounding this film’s “twist,” and while I’d argue that it’s more of an inciting incident than a proper twist — and it happens early enough in the film to not really register as a spoiler — I won’t say it here. You’re in the clear.
What I will say is this: a mask slips, and the couple finds themselves in a spiraling web of miscommunications and mistakes that threaten their relationship in a multitude of hilarious and upsetting ways. What follows is a lesson in the limits of dishonesty, and a reminder that so many people commit their lives to a person who they never took the time to really get to know. It’s not an outright deception, nor even really a lie of omission, but rather a lack of up front communication that kicks off all the drama in … The Drama. And it’s a real doozy too. The film is asking just what sort of behavior, imagined or entered, is acceptable. Can an “almost sin” be forgiven? Should it be?
Don’t worry, I’m still being properly vague.
This inciting bit of info is of a certain hot button brand that will surely cause some prickly discussions, but that is surely the point, as it always is with Borgli. He’s a filmmaker who revels in making his audience uncomfortable — in eliciting the type of laughter defined by the most dramatic pressure release. Borgli has proven himself a master of casting a butt-clenching spell upon even the most savvy crowd, showcasing an alchemy that only cinema can provide. Yes, you should see this with a crowd.
Zendaya and Pattinson, queen and king of “could’ve been a novelty act but it turns out they’re actually powerful artists,” make for a believable couple with an aspirational connection. Even with the initial lie that brought them together (which Pattinson’s Charlie admits to on their very first date), their bond feels solid. Credit to both performers for selling a level of realism that could’ve been hard to purchase on account of their instantly iconic faces (a task that Nic Cage rose to admirably in Dream Scenario). In fact, their instant recognizability, despite their dual ability to shake it, might be part of Borgli’s prank: more than a few people will likely buy a ticket expecting the exact wrong type of rom-com. I certainly hope so.
But even with this star power at the top, it’s the supporting cast who ultimately steals the film. You are not ready for the intensity and verisimilitude that Alana Haim brings to the film as the one party most outwardly aggrieved by the inciting incident. Mamoudou Athie makes the perfect foil as her soft spoken, no-nonsense husband. As one of few characters who doesn’t collapse in on himself, he’s a pillar amidst the chaos. There’s a single scene involving a substitute wedding DJ who gets the film’s biggest laughs (and cluelessly twists the narrative knife), as well as a deadly serious dance instructor with not a kind word to say to anyone who isn’t as committed as she is. This story is stacked with flawed, interesting humans all the way down to the smallest character.
Ultimately, this prankish provocation plays as a rom-com, just not with the bubblegum twee sentiments that often come with such things (although it definitely has a twisted sweetness to it). Rom-coms are typically fueled by misunderstandings, and then they end with our leading man chasing our leading lady across a majestic/cluttered set piece to the soothing sounds of The Gin Blossoms. The Drama hits all of these notes, but does so with a fracture, dark sense of humor, and with a magnifying glass on the American attention economy, its intersections with human coupling, and the many intangibles that come with it all.
And how perfect a setting for such things? Almost every married person I know has related to me that the wedding was the most stressful night of their lives. Statistics show that newlyweds rarely consummate the marriage until the morning after for this very reason. Well, that and Whiskey Dick™️.
Directed by Kristoffer Borgli
Written by Kristoffer Borgli
Starring Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie
105 minutes
