Alana Haim’s Rachel Might Be the Secret Villain of The Drama

by

Kristoffer Borgli’s film, The Drama, has definitely sparked conversation. Even viewers who weren’t completely satisfied with it can’t seem to stop discussing it, suggesting the director may have achieved exactly what he intended. The story, which most people now know (and it’s best to avoid reading further if you don’t!), revolves around a wedding thrown into chaos when the bride, Emma (Zendaya), reveals she almost committed a school shooting at age 15. This understandably shocks her fiancé, Charlie (Robert Pattinson), making him question whether they should get married. While initial discussions focused on Emma’s past actions and her character, attention is now turning to another character: Rachel (Alana Haim), Emma’s maid of honor and wife of Charlie’s best man, Michael (Mamoudou Athie), who some are now seeing as the film’s true antagonist.

The story takes a dramatic turn when Emma reveals a difficult secret during a late-night conversation with her friends. What began as a lighthearted game of sharing past mistakes quickly becomes intense, not only because of Emma’s confession but because of Rachel’s unexpected reaction. Actress Alana Haim, known for her music and increasingly recognized for her acting talent, brilliantly portrays Rachel’s shift from supportive friend to critical judge. Rachel explains her harshness stems from a personal tragedy – her cousin was paralyzed in a shooting. However, the film also subtly satirizes Rachel’s self-assured moralizing. In one scene, she assumes Michael, who is Black, had exposure to guns growing up, a claim he immediately and rightfully corrects – his uncle was a police officer, but he himself didn’t grow up around firearms.

Okay, let me tell you about a couple of seriously unsettling reveals in this film. Rachel lets slip the worst thing she ever did, and it’s genuinely disturbing. As a kid, she lured a vulnerable boy to an abandoned RV, locked him in a disgusting closet, and just left him when he started screaming. The worst part? She didn’t say a word when his parents and the police were searching for him. It’s framed as a childhood mistake, but it’s hard not to see how that same coldness is playing out now as she completely abandons her friend, Emma. Then there’s Michael, who seems meek as ever, confessing that his worst act was letting his girlfriend take the brunt of a dog attack in Mexico – they even joke about her being a ‘human shield’! It perfectly sums him up, honestly. And it’s no surprise that when he’s giving Charlie advice about his marriage, it feels like Rachel is the one talking through him. These flashbacks aren’t just backstory; they brilliantly illuminate who these characters are right now.

Interestingly, Emma never actually went through with her plan, which sets her apart from Rachel and Michael, who seem to be repeating harmful patterns from their youth. The film reveals that after abandoning her intended attack – ironically, on the same day a classmate was killed in a separate shooting – Emma became a passionate advocate for gun control, something her father proudly mentions at the wedding. This creates a central conflict for Charlie: he wonders if Emma could ever revert to her former intentions. He overreacts to her normal behavior, misinterpreting her actions – like using a kitchen knife, yelling at a dangerous driver, or firing their DJ for drug use (something they’d already discussed) – as signs of potential violence. This highlights the inherent uncertainty of long-term commitment. The irony is that Emma is the only one who truly changed, hurting only herself in the process. Meanwhile, Rachel’s childhood friend is still haunted by a seemingly minor incident – being locked in an RV for a day.

Borgli’s last film, Dream Scenario (2023), starred Nicolas Cage as a quiet college professor who unexpectedly became famous when people started seeing him in their dreams. This fame quickly turned negative, though, as his dream self began attacking others. Even though Cage’s character wasn’t responsible for these attacks in the real world, he became unwelcome everywhere because he made people uncomfortable. Despite this interesting and thought-provoking beginning, Dream Scenario unfortunately became a predictable and shallow commentary on cancel culture. As I noted in my review, the film’s strong initial idea was ultimately lost in favor of easy jokes.

In The Drama, Borgli takes the satire to an even deeper level, but still hints at it through the character of Rachel. Her harshness often feels like the kind of aggressive behavior we see—and sometimes participate in—on social media. It’s not just that she quickly gets angry with Emma, but also that she seems to be acting on impulse, possibly to feel better about her own past mistakes. Charlie might secretly be helping her with this. We learn he once cyberbullied a child so badly the family had to relocate, and Pattinson delivers this confession with a deceptively casual air, making it easy to miss how awful his actions were.

Emma’s confession is deeply unsettling, and it’s understandable to question whether the director, Borgli, is being insensitive by framing such a tragic event – one that has affected so many in the U.S. – as the basis for a darkly comedic romance. However, Borgli himself experienced a similar tragedy; his native Norway suffered a horrific mass shooting in 2011, when Anders Breivik killed 77 people – a tragedy even documented in a film by Paul Greengrass. It seems Borgli deliberately chose this sensitive topic to challenge our own boundaries and reactions. For the film’s emotional impact to work, Emma’s character must contemplate something truly terrible, forcing us to confront our own outrage. The film isn’t just about the characters’ actions; it’s also examining our responses to them. Ultimately, the true villain might not be Rachel, but the audience itself, silently judging those on screen. In the morally complex world of The Drama, and perhaps in real life, the most ruthless people are often those who believe they are doing the right thing.

Read More

2026-04-07 20:55