Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch play the title characters in The Roses. It’s a new adaptation of the 1981 Warren Adler novel The War of the Roses; it was previously made into a movie in 1989 under that title, with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.
Living in northern California with their two kids in this version, Theo Rose is a hot young architect, while Ivy Rose is a hot young seafood chef. A meteorological phenomenon causes a disaster in the career of one of them on the same day it proves a boon to the career of the other. This reversal of fortune accelerates the gradual erosion of amity in the relationship between the two, until eventually it moves beyond verbal attacks to literal shots fired.
The new movie is probably better than the 1989 version, but that’s not particularly high praise. Colman and Cumberbatch are both magnetic stars, and both have a splendid way with a line, so the movie can’t help but have some charm and some laughs, especially early on. But they may be too good for this material.
Director Jay Roach, of Austin Powers and Meet the Parents fame, working from a script by Tony McNamara, can’t seem to strike a consistent tone. Sometimes The Roses is a nasty, mean-spirited black comedy, other times the stars give it a degree of emotional depth and complexity that the farcical plot twists and the vicious, stupid insults they’re given to say can’t accommodate.
The dialogue is even harder on the supporting cast. The movie is full of accomplished comedians like Andy Samberg, Kate McKinnon and Allison Janney, but the bits they’re given are painfully unfunny.
The near-psychotic feelings of rage toward each other that can arise even in the healthiest of long-term relationships is, to be sure, a classic subject, both for tragedy and comedy. (The great Chris Rock insists: “If you haven’t contemplated murder, you ain’t been in love!”) But even with top-notch leads, a classic subject deserves better treatment than this.
There is this to be said for The Roses, however: It may leave you with an appetite for crabs.
