Zendaya and Robert Pattinson steer a shallow plot in 'The Drama'

HALF THE BATTLE of The Drama is won in the casting: Robert Pattinson and Zendaya. They star in a romcom that starts as a meet-cute and becomes a psychological study. It begins with a drinking game between friends: what’s the worst thing you have done? And it descends from there into a question of morality, acceptance of flaws, love and forgiveness.

Like Materialists, this film has beautiful people, living in beautiful apartments, with gorgeous jobs that seemingly pay well though they are in the arts. New York exists in and around Pattinson and Zendaya as they drink wine and coffee copiously and barely eat. In a world where our partners are meant to be everything to us, how well can we know them? In a universe of social media standards of red flags, what is the acceptable level of bad behaviour? Frankly if my potential partners looked like Pattinson with his carefully mussed up hair or Zendaya with her pout, I wouldn’t care.

Call me shallow, but then so is this film, with all its pretence of deep childhood scars and the difficult business of adulting. It’s the picture-perfect vehicle for two of the movie business’ most bankable names. Pretty, and pretty superficial.