Psychological thriller (masquerading as a romcom), is written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli.
Zendaya - Emma
Robert Pattinson - Charlie
Alana Haim - Rachel
Mamoudou Athie - Mike
Hailey Gates - Misha
Zoë Winters - Frances
Hannah Gross - Alice
Sydney Lemmon - Pauline
Anna Baryshnikov - Samantha
Additionally, Jordyn Curet plays a young Emma.
Summary
At a café in Boston, museum director Charlie approaches bookstore clerk Emma, pretending he's already read her book - The Damage by Harper Ellison.
Fake title might be teasing a future project, but author is probably a reference to Harlan Ellison.
Emma explains she is deaf in one ear and invites him to restart conversation, leading to a date.
Two years later, they're engaged.
By now, we've met Emma's maid of honour Rachel and Charlie's best man Mike.
A week before the big day, the four of them get drunk and discuss the worst things they've ever done.
Emma reveals she was planning a school shooting aged just fifteen and firing her father's rifle caused her ear to pop. Bombshell reverberates around the room and disgusts Rachel, as a shooting incident paralyzed her cousin Samantha.
Is Emma really a psychopath?
The wedding goes ahead, at the expense of pushing Charlie's mental state to breaking point.
Double empathy
First off, dark twist wasn't shown in trailers.
What apparently begins as a sweet romance, soon becomes a pitch-black satire.
Sound design pours glasses of eerie silence, with disconcerting camera angles and abrupt cuts reeking of awkward tension.
The ever reliable Zendaya injects complex vulnerability and a bespectacled Pattinson is at the centre of escalating chaos.
Controversial subject matter will probably leave a sour taste and already has tongues furiously wagging.
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