Fusing comedy with insanity, Jay Roach’s “The Roses,” starring Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch, displays the implications of long-harbored resentment in a marriage when both parties are clinging to a sense of control.
The film is adapted from Warren Adler’s 1981 novel “The War of the Roses” and Danny Devito’s 1989 film of the same name, though this review is more concerned with the character dynamics and rom-com elements of Roach’s.
When architect Theo’s business dinner goes poorly, he sneaks into the restaurant kitchen and meets chef Ivy: they immediately fall for one another and decide to move to America together and pursue their respective passions.
After the move, Theo and Ivy have twins; Ivy opens an initially unsuccessful seafood restaurant while Theo takes on the ambitious project of designing a naval history museum in the shape of a ship, sail and all.
Right as Theo’s museum opens, a severe storm destroys it and thus his reputation as an architect. As this storm sends customers flocking to Ivy’s restaurant—cheekily named We’ve Got Crabs—business booms and she becomes a celebrated chef, leaving Theo as a stay-at-home dad.
In the wake of this change, Theo and Ivy are blindsided by their stark differences in parenting approaches: Theo emphasizes athletics and dieting while Ivy puts no limit on the children’s access to sweets, citing that diet restriction leads to “weird obsessions.”
It is a curious detail that the two would not have discussed such fundamental concepts in parenting before, well, deciding to be parents together. But the tinted lens of fate leads lovers to falsely assume that such details will simply work themselves out, that such an instant strong connection guarantees seeing eye-to-eye for eternity.
The same fiery passion upon which Theo and Ivy build their relationship is what inevitably kills them. They hate each other for their own shared decisions, ruing the trust that brought them together.
Theo knows that he cannot give up his career without also giving up his happiness, yet he chooses to and resents Ivy for it. Ivy prioritizes her booming career over her children and blames Theo for raising them how he’s shown her he would.
The film conveys these marriage issues realistically and with well-done humor, but it unsuccessfully appears to try and convince the audience that both parties are equally to blame while providing a more empathetic view of one lead than the other. There is the glamor of Ivy’s newfound success—surely coming with its own pitfalls and challenges, but we don’t see them—as she comes back from gatherings blackout drunk to a jealous, angry Theo, even though she has invited him to said gatherings.
Theo’s career plummets while Ivy’s thrives. Theo raises the children and builds their dream home while Ivy rides the high of fame. We get much more of Theo’s friends and interior life than Ivy’s: Ncuti Gatwa and Sunita Mani, Ivy’s restaurant staff, give great performances yet are painfully underutilized. The film wants us to believe Theo and Ivy are both equally at fault for their misery, but unfortunately suffers from a lack of the latter’s perspective, a mistake careless at best and misogynistic at worst.
Still, “The Roses” is an excellent black comedy. Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch wound one another with seamless, electric insults that horrify the couple’s therapist in the opening sequence so badly to the point of her insisting the two are beyond repair—after which the two walk away giggling.
Andy Samberg charms as a lovably stupid lawyer, delivering lines like “Pardon my French but the way the wind catches the sail is whimsical as f—!” and, looking out into a scenic distance, “This would be a cool place to suicide from.”
Kate McKinnon serves her signature role, making cringeworthy advances at the two leads; Olivia Colman throws cake at her during the same disastrous dinner party at which McKinnon hilariously utters “I am an empath and I’m having a hard time at this table.”
In comparing the film to its predecessors, many critique Roach’s version for half-baked hatred, not letting its leads go far enough in their quest for one another’s downfall. I am inclined to agree; Theo and Ivy’s descent into violence comes off as abrupt not logically but tonally.
Ivy making a deepfake of Theo claiming the museum’s fall was orchestrated is cruel enough, but so topically bleak that it doesn’t quite sit right. On the other hand, Theo inducing a nearly fatal allergic reaction in Ivy to get her to sign papers promising him the house is just the right kind of twisted.
Ultimately, the takeaway refrain of “The Roses” is that love will kill us so long as we chase its spark blindly. We all can only hope to have as much fun with it—and as many quick-witted British jabs with it—as do Ivy and Theo.
