Jay Roach has made some unforgettable comedies like ‘Meet the Parents’ and ‘Austin Powers’, but he’s also made some movies we’d like to forget, namely ‘Dinner for Schmucks’ and ‘Bombshell’. The Roses is better than those later titles, but it lacks conviction.
Marriage can be terrifying. Sharing your whole life with someone is incredibly daunting. Yet with communication and mutual respect, it can be an exciting and wholly fulfilling chapter of life. Movies like The Roses, an adaptation of Warren Alder’s novel The War of the Roses, take the uglier sides of marriage and exaggerate them for comedic effect. It’s a strong idea for a dark satire; it’s just a shame that this film lacks the necessary bite, despite its talented ensemble.
Directed by Jay Roach and penned by Tony McNamara (Poor Things), the film stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman as Theo and Ivy Rose. They are a loving couple of many years, having immigrated to California from Britain together, with two children and a playfully dark sense of humour between them. Theo is a renowned architect who suffers a setback when one of his buildings collapses in a storm. Needing money, Ivy steps up as the breadwinner, working full-time at her seafood restaurant, while Theo becomes a stay-at-home dad.
Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch in THE ROSES. Photo by Jaap Buitendijk, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
Conflict arises when Ivy’s food is given a glowing review by a restaurant critic, turning her humble restaurant into the first of a vast chain across the country. With it comes the fame, money, and respect that Theo once commanded, sparking intense jealousy. From there, the marriage begins to disintegrate at alarming speed, descending into all-out war with neither side giving in, even as divorce, unhappiness and worse hang over their heads.
Alder’s novel has been adapted before as Danny DeVito’s 1989 comedy The War of the Roses, which this new film can reasonably be called a remake of. The War of the Roses follows the same premise: a marriage falling apart, with husband and wife alike doing increasingly unforgivable things to each other because their egos won’t let them concede defeat. It was edgy and grotesque, yet still humorous in its satirical portrayal of dated gender norms and an obsession with materialism. If anything, its shameless nastiness made it even funnier, as the characters’ blatant awfulness gave the satire more bite.
By contrast, The Roses seems remarkably timid and takes far too long to get to the meat of its story. Not only is the spark of romance between Theo and Ivy rushed, shown in a brief prologue, but they’re actually relatively reasonable people with reasonable anxieties, which makes their turn into heartless monsters more puzzling than compelling. Much of the film consists of them passively-aggressively tiptoeing around their issues, which is more irritating than amusing and limits the comedic potential. Instead of extremities, the humour utilises reference humour and contemporary trends – you can bet the collapse of Theo’s building becomes an internet meme, which is much less funny or shocking compared to the jaw-dropping antics of its predecessor. It wants to have its cake and eat it too – to be mean, but not too mean. This doesn’t make the film easier to engage with; it just makes it toothless.
It’s a pity, as McNamara explores some decent ideas with this reimagining. On top of Theo becoming jealous of Ivy’s newfound success, Ivy laments the lack of time she has with her children because of her job, resenting Theo for seeing the big moments she would’ve had if things had been different. This reversal of Kathleen Turner’s character in DeVito’s film is intriguing, and it also shows how a stubborn belief in outdated ideals—the breadwinning husband or the domestic mother—can poison an otherwise peaceful coexistence. That Theo and Ivy are given foils in the form of Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon’s Barry and Amy, who are more fluid in their partnership and much happier, further supports this theme.
Yet any original or compelling ideas in this reimagining are quickly snuffed out by the structurally imbalanced script and Roach’s needless restraint. Where the characters’ war began at the midpoint of DeVito’s film, here Theo and Ivy only start to get truly despicable in the last 20 or so minutes. Not only is it a betrayal of marketing, but because the rest of the film has been so subdued in its portrayal of hostility, it induces tonal whiplash, as the film’s darkness shifts from zero to a hundred. It’s certainly morbid, but it’s only funny on occasion, providing infrequent chuckles rather than stunned shock or incredulous belly laughs.
Turning to the other characters is no help, as the aforementioned Barry and Amy scene-chew with great annoyance, while other talented names like Alison Janney and Ncuti Gatwa get relatively little to do beyond deliver laboured punchlines and wit-lacking witticisms. They’re acting against the backdrop of beautiful production design—the family house that Theo designs and Ivy funds in the second half of the film looks stunning—but their characters feel feeble rather than impressionable.
Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch are both terrific actors, and they do what they can with their roles here. One can feel empathy for both characters’ positions, and their chemistry is occasionally pleasing, as in a therapy scene where their shared contempt becomes an ironic bond. Their exaggerated mannerisms in the film’s final act also provide some amusing moments. Yet because the film is so hesitant to push its bleak comedy or thematic exploration too far, the result is generic and forgettable, with the leading characters proving more petulant than captivating in their increasingly amoral behaviour. That it culminates in a truly dark final moment is but a sad reminder of what this film could’ve been had it been more gutsy.
Jay Roach has made unforgettable comedies like Meet the Parents and Austin Powers, but he’s also made some movies we’d rather forget, namely Dinner for Schmucks and Bombshell. The Roses is better than those latter titles, but it suffers from a lack of conviction. It’s simply too gutless to deliver on its comedy or morally grey themes, becoming a pale imitation of DeVito’s superior film rather than a modern interpretation of the same story. It feels weird to suggest that a movie should’ve been more twisted or mean-spirited, but if you’re going to explore dark subject matter with black humour, then the least you can do is stick to your guns.
The Roses is showing in cinemas nationwide from August 29.
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