[Dispatch=Jung Tae-yun] (※ This article contains spoilers for the movie 'The Drama'.)

Love at first sight. Meeting again under the guise of coincidence. Falling in love. Preparing for marriage. These are scenes we've seen countless times in romance movies.

'The Drama' (directed by Christopher Boyle) initially appears to follow that familiar formula exactly.

But something is off. Just when you think it's heading in the expected direction, it suddenly catches you off guard. Once you understand the situation, it becomes funny, and the moment you're about to laugh, another absurdity pops out.

The real fun of 'The Drama' lies in its timing. What the movie shows is actually very primitive humor. Falling in love, becoming suspicious, secrets being exposed, fighting.

Yet the movie doesn't consume that primitive emotion cheaply. Instead, it pushes forward with a serious face throughout. That's why the laughter becomes bigger.

Even the scene where Charlie (Robert Pattinson) sees Emma (Zendaya) in a café and falls in love at first sight is like this. Charlie uses the book he was reading as an excuse to talk to Emma.

In ordinary romance, lies too become nourishment for love. Hurriedly reading the book, creating common interests, that small lie brings the two closer.

But 'The Drama' doesn't make that expected next move. Charlie doesn't read the book, and the lie just remains a lie.

This movie continues like this. It doesn't abandon the clichés of romance. Instead, it twists the final detail. And from some point on, it becomes increasingly bold.

Emma has a secret that she once planned a mass shooting. After finding out this fact, Charlie can no longer look at her the same way as before.

The movie doesn't take on that heaviness lightly. As they take wedding sample photos, a flash goes off, and above the image of the two embracing affectionately, an image of Emma holding a gun overlaps.

In what should be the most romantic moment, the most horrific imagination is inserted. This is 'The Drama' style black comedy. It's not telling a joke to get a laugh. The situation itself is so absurd that laughter comes out.

The movie hits you with one more twist. While Charlie is worried about Emma's danger, it's actually Charlie who causes a critical accident.

At that moment, the audience pauses. The man who was suspecting the ideology of the bride-to-be who had planned a mass shooting causes an absurd accident. Now neither can blame the other.

The wedding becomes not the fruit of love, but a time of worrying whether their own secrets will be exposed. Emma is anxious because of a friend who knows her past, and Charlie is anxious because of his shocking mistake.

On a wedding where everyone should be happy, the bride and groom break into cold sweat for different reasons.

Here, the black comedy of 'The Drama' shines. The actors are serious. The situation is serious. The emotions are real. That's why it's funnier.

Robert Pattinson emphasizes Charlie's pathetic nature. From the moment he rambles in front of the woman he fell in love with at first sight, to the process of nurturing suspicions alone after learning about Emma's past.

He doesn't make it exaggerated comedy. He seriously portrays a man who is somewhat lacking, anxious, and sometimes pitiful.

The scene where Zendaya reveals her secret while drunk is also striking. The speed and rhythm of her speech, even the unfocused look in her eyes.

Rather than acting drunk, she looks like someone who is actually drunk. That's why laughter comes along with a subtle tension.

Perhaps it's similar to the primitive laughter felt in the sitcom 'Friends'. It feels like audience laughter could be heard right behind the scene at any moment.

The characters take what happens to them seriously, and the actors maintain their composure throughout. That's why the laughter doesn't feel cheap or crude.

The ending of the movie also stays memorable in the same way. The wedding ultimately ends in disaster.

Charlie's face is beaten up by his coworker's boyfriend, and he sits alone in his usual hamburger restaurant eating a hamburger.

On the night of the wedding that should have been happy, it looks like nothing remains. Then Emma, wearing an orange padded jacket over her wedding dress, walks in.

Emma extends her hand to Charlie as if she were meeting him for the first time. They already know each other's secrets, and even the wedding went wrong.

Yet she extends her hand as if to start over from the beginning. At the most irreversible moment, she makes the most romantic movie choice.

This too is 'The Drama' style. The movie brings familiar scenes of romance from beginning to end, twisting the final detail.

It's not clear exactly what this movie is trying to say. Whether it's a story about love, about relationships, or about accepting each other's pasts. It's difficult to define clearly.

Yet strangely, the scenes linger. The rambling of a man in love at first sight, wedding photos taken alongside Emma with a gun, a wedding falling apart because of each other's secrets, a hamburger eaten with a bruised face, and a hand extended again.

Even long afterward, remembering the scenes makes you laugh quietly. Isn't that alone quite a fine romance.

'The Drama' opens in theaters next month on the 9th.

"Messy is the romantic ★★★☆"

<Photo courtesy=PlusM Entertainment, Waterhole Company>