Are We the Worst Thing We’ve Done — Or the Worst Thing We Chose Not to Do?
The Drama follows happily engaged couple Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson), whose relationship begins to unravel in the week before their wedding when Emma reveals a shocking secret. During a pre-wedding dinner game, she admits that at 15, she planned a school shooting—but abandoned the plan after a different tragedy struck her community.
Charlie and their friends—best man Mike (Mamoudou Athie) and maid of honor Rachel (Alana Haim)—are left reeling. The film follows Charlie as he wrestles with anxiety, moral disgust, and the painful question of whether he can still walk down the aisle with Emma.
Spoilers (?) ahead…
I saw the movie with my sister, and judging by our reactions, we were having a much more comedic experience than most of the theatre. At one point, I wondered if we were being a little inappropriate for laughing at moments that I thought were genuinely hilarious. The film is satirical, using an uncomfortable mix of cringe comedy, psychological thriller elements, and sharp satire to test the limits of modern romance and forgiveness.
Rather than taking a clear political stance, the story forces the audience and the characters to grapple with how people reconcile a partner’s horrifying past with their present-day persona.
The performances were amazing. The story itself is thought-provoking. I walked out of the theatre knowing that the internet was going to be talking about it for weeks—and boy, was I right (RIP my fyp), although it doesn’t take much to polarize folks these days.
Alana Haim’s portrayal of Rachel is phenomenal. We know the Rachels of the world: people who project shame and moral certainty onto others to avoid facing their own shortcomings. She genuinely believes she’s morally superior, which makes the virtue signaling and grandstanding almost painful to watch. She’ll reach for any real-life example that supports her argument—even when the facts don’t. When she says Mike grew up around guns and he replies, “No, I didn’t,” it’s a perfect little snapshot of how being right can matter more than what’s true.
The whole debacle started because she pressured her husband to share something he’d entrusted her with. My sister and I looked at each other when that happened, telepathically communicating Who does that to their spouse? Or friend? It’s a fleeting moment, but it says a lot about the characters.
That being said, nobody is simply good or bad in this story. Everyone is complicated, but its portrayal makes it clear that even people with the best of intentions are capable of perpetuating harm, especially in a bid to maintain their identity as “a good person.”
Charlie is desperate to find a logical explanation for Emma’s thoughts and behavior. But he’s really trying to figure out what it says about him that he can love someone who’s capable of harm.
Mike hides his true opinions behind other people and assesses the mood in the room before sharing his thoughts. Characters like that get me irate, because that type of cowardice is often quieter but does as much harm as overt cruelty.
In a turn of events, Emma seemed to be the most gracious person in the conversation. I’m not sure I could’ve moved past what happened in the end—not because the actions were necessarily irredeemable, but because the lack of courage—Charlie’s scrambling, rationalizing, and searching for an acceptable answer instead of dealing with an honest one or asking for more time—would’ve given me the ick.
Still, the ending makes a good point: relationships are messy, and love can survive things we swear we’d never tolerate.
Also, maybe this says something about me, but the DJ’s extracurricular activities wouldn’t have been my biggest concern. Would I make a backup playlist? Absolutely! Otherwise… alright, man.
The Drama understands how badly we want morality to be clean and simple: good person, bad person, right choice, wrong choice. But most of us live somewhere in the blur between intention, fear, ego, shame, love, and self-preservation.
So I keep coming back to the question I had leaving the theatre: are we the worst thing we’ve done, or the worst thing we consciously chose not to do?