In The Roses, a long-married couple who live in California with their two children drift apart and then collide in spectacular fashion. The British heritage of hotshot architect Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch) and brilliant chef Ivy (Olivia Colman) is an obstacle to as well as a weapon in the escalating war.
Jay Roach’s black comedy, written by Tony McNamara (The Favourite, Poor Things), leans on the posh accents of its leads as well as the British reputation for obfuscating through language. Perfectly formed sentences – indeed whole paragraphs – fly between the couple. The breathtakingly acerbic, scabrous and entertaining repartee considerably updates the Book of Insults while handing out notes to similarly scheming couples.
A storm is the first, literal sign of trouble in a marriage seemingly held together by little else than gargantuan egos. A reversal in roles between Theo and Ivy worsens the situation. A divorce not only seems imminent but also sensible, but it’s not easy.
The Roses is a re-imagination of Warran Adler’s 1981 novel The War of the Roses. The book has already yielded a superb screen adaptation of the same name, directed by Danny DeVito and starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.
The 1989 movie stuck to the novel’s plot points and didn’t provide a reason for the marriage’s unravelling beyond unbearable incompatibility. The new version replaces American economy with British verbosity, taking in contemporary conversations about gender tensions between equally ambitious partners, parenting duties and the perils of the British tendency towards repression.
Tony McNamara brings his trademark anarchy to many of the scenes, especially revolving around the unstable Amy (Kate McKinnon), who plays one of the couple’s friends. There’s even a line about British imperialism, meant to be taken as seriously as the threats that fly between Theo and Ivy.
Despite supporting characters, including Andy Samberg as Amy’s husband and Sunita Mani and Ncuti Gatwa as Ivy’s colleagues, the film is a two-hander between actors perfectly suited to rolling off acres of dialogue. Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman are hugely watchable as spouses who are dying to be exes.
Like in the previous film adaptation, Colman has the more satisfying arc, with Ivy going from eager-to-please hausfrau to in-demand restaurateur.
Cumberbatch and Colman brilliantly convey the writing’s brittleness as well as the couple’s bottomless descent into humiliation. The extended insult comedy set pieces draw heavily on the actors’ previous stage experience. Unsurprisingly, there are numerous moments when The Roses itself feels like a play. Indeed, it would make a dazzling stage production.
But it’s a movie, heavily padded and rambling at that, with raging scenes of verbal as well as physical combat that lose their edge over time. Theo and Ivy have every intention to talk their way to the exit, as does the film.
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