Backlash mounts over twist in Robert Pattinson Zendaya romcom The Drama
Disquiet aired over the subject matter of film about a couple whose engagement is upended after they reveal to each other ‘the worst thing you’ve ever done’
The father of a child murdered in the Columbine school shootings has expressed his unhappiness at the film-makers behind forthcoming movie The Drama.
The film, which is written and directed by Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli, is a dark romantic comedy starring Robert Pattinson and Zendaya as a couple whose upcoming wedding is cast in doubt after she reveals that she once planned a school shooting, but backed out at the last moment.
Her character discloses the information while playing a parlour game with Pattinson and two friends, in which they are encouraged to say “the worst thing you’ve ever done”.
Speaking to TMZ, Tom Mauser, whose son Daniel was among 13 students killed at the high school shooting in Colorado in 1999, said he feels the leveraging of such subject matter for a romantic comedy is “awful”. Mauser, who became an advocate for gun reform in the wake of the massacre, added that he was concerned by Zendaya’s response to seriously framed questions about the twist on the Jimmy Kimmel show last week.
“What’s difficult about even talking about the movie,” said Zendaya, “is there is so many different genres [in it]. It is a romantic comedy in many ways but it’s also a drama. Everybody has their own kind of feelings leaving the theatre, especially with the big twist. There’s so many conversations that are had after you watch it.”
To cast a star as beloved as Zendaya, said Mauser, “humanises” the perpetrators of such violence, and “normalises” the shootings – despite her character backing out of the attack, and no such violence being depicted.
A24, the studio behind the film, has not screened it widely, possibly in an effort to avoid spoilers. Reaction to a small early screening for selected critics in the US earlier this week was broadly positive. Reviews are embargoed until 31 March. The Guardian has approached the film’s UK distributors for comment.
Elephant, Gus Van Sant’s 2003 drama inspired by the Columbine shootings, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes; Michael Moore’s documentary examining the circumstances of the massacre won the Oscar for documentary the same year.
All the Empty Rooms, in which a photojournalist documents the bedrooms left behind by children killed in US school shootings, won the Academy Award for documentary short earlier this month.