The Roses Review: Benedict Cumberbatch And Olivia Colman Lead An Anti-Romantic Comedy, And It Doesn’t Get Bitter Than This

There’s been meet-cutes turned love affairs aplenty in Hollywood movies, but very few romances are about couples who have spent years upon years looking in each other’s eyes. And then there’s The Roses – which follows the immensely talented Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman as Theo and Ivy Rose... but don’t expect any butterflies in your stomach about these two.

When we meet them in the film, they’ve been together for a decade and are balancing having two kids with each of their passion-driven careers. It’s refreshing to see a middle-aged pairing, but The Roses has the opposite effect of a romantic comedy, as you'll be more likely to be rooting for the demise of their marriage as the story continues to progress. It tackles some very real complications that can plague modern couples, but The Roses is played as a classic comedy where goofiness and laughs are the main objective rather than developing an emotional narrative like Marriage Story.

It’s actually a ball to watch Cumberbatch and Colman take turns roasting each other and taking their marriage to even more damaged places, especially considering both of the Roses aren’t exactly saints as people. But when all is said and done, it makes for a quite bleak film about relationships and the sheer insanity they can inspire when not properly maintained.

It’s hilarious to watch Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman play a wealthy couple on opposite career trajectories.

The Roses is a remake of the 1989 movie starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner (that I admittedly haven’t seen myself) based on the 1980s novel The War Of The Roses by Warren Adler. It marks director Jay Roach’s first straight comedy in years – he being the filmmaker behind the Austin Powers films, Meet The Parents and Dinner For Schmucks – and his comfort in the genre is clear as day here as he steadies the funny bits with genuine moments.

It all starts when Theo’s star architectural project crashes and burns in a very public way, and he’s kicked to the curb by his firm while Ivy has a seafood restaurant that starts going viral on the very same night. So, it’s decided: Ivy will become the breadwinner while Theo raises the kids. What ensues is a slow burn un-romancing as the couple replaces affections for each other with bitterness and loathing. It’s juicy to watch Cumberbatch and Colman become increasingly vain, as they always have a kind of cartoony delight (and R-rated edge) to them.

Cumberbatch plays an egotistical go-getter who is a perfectionist with a hyperactive mind. Colman’s Ivy is a quirky, creative-type stay-at-home mom turned restauranteur who wears fun clothes and delights in serving up her kids treats at midnight. The set up for this pair’s romance heating up isn’t given much of a baseline, aside from their first meeting going from zero to one hundred. But perhaps the lack of connection we have with the couple helps us watch things fall apart with spring still in our step. Cumberbatch and Colman are a bitingly funny pair who use their wits to entertain us from start to finish.

Then there’s its impressive supporting cast of comedians Andy Samberg, Kate McKinnon, Zoë Chao, Jamie Demetriou, Ncuti Gatwa, Sunita Mani and Allison Janney helping to defuse the Roses’ melodrama... or sometimes help fuel the flames. Samberg and McKinnon are having a blast at playing with tropes about how being a middle-aged couple might mean wanting to “open the relationship” or casually display their depression symptoms at social gatherings. Chao and Demetriou add to the laughs as architect colleagues of Theo's who are always in comparison mode with the Roses, while Mani and Gatwa play loyal servers riding on the coattails of Ivy’s sudden success.

Tony McNamara’s flair for biting dialogue makes for another juicy script after his other critically acclaimed work (like Poor Things).

Perhaps what works the best about The Roses is the mind behind the words. It’s from a script by Tony McNamara, who most recently wrote Poor Things but also did The Favourite, The Great and Cruella. McNamara once again proves to be one of the most talented script writers right now as he saturates each moment with wordy cleverness. It’s absolutely half the fun to see Cumberbatch and Colman take ownership of what he’s written on the page. Much of the time, his words here are rooted in sharp ridicules between the Roses that feel meant to erupt the viewer in gasps and impressed giggles. It's often crass but always delicious.

And you know what sweetens the deal? The movie is set in gorgeous along the coast of Northern California where Theo's work baby is coastal buildings, and Ivy's is a charming fish shop called "We've Got Crabs."

The Roses acts as a guide about what not to do in marriage, and in doing so, it absolutely goes more in a ridiculous direction rather than taking a grounded approach to a movie about relationships.

The Roses is a movie that really moves and finds the ability to take its time with its story building and also not take a beat a bridge too far – but it also waits until too late to treat its main characters with empathy instead of being more like an episode of Tom & Jerry. It’s too caught up in how fun it is to watch these two to be mean to one another, and it loses some believability in order to let these two completely loose with anger.

For anyone who has dealt with problems in a long-standing relationship, chances are they’ll say this exaggerates things much too much, while also finding their own pockets to relate to too. The Roses is ridiculous, ridiculously funny, and a rather harsh dark comedy starring two of the most talented actors we have.