FILM REVIEW
THE ROSES
Rated R
105 Minutes
Released August 29th
If you’ve seen the promo trailers for The Roses, try to wipe them out of your mind. The preview makes the movie look like a slapstick comedy, which it’s not. This film walks the fine, wavering line between comedy, drama, and tragedy with a Shakespearean sense of the silliness that is real life when you take a step back and pull your emotions out of the narrative.
This film is loosely based on the 1981 novel “The War of the Roses” by Warren Adler, a dark comedy about a couple whose love story disintegrates into a divisive brawl of a divorce, with their substantial worldly goods and dream home in contention. Adler said the story grew from his own observations of marriage and divorce, and what happens to a couple when their possessions and works usurp their identity. An earlier film based on this novel was released in 1989, starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, who turn brutal on one another.
The 2025 movie is less violent and angry and not a rehash of the original. The couple are on more equal footing here. In this universal story that many of us live through in varying degrees, two intelligent, dominant, and highly creative individuals do their best to share a life. “Ivy Rose,” played by Olivia Colman, is a celebrated chef who owns her own restaurant called ‘We’ve Got Crabs.” Benedict Cumberbatch plays her husband, “Theo,” a brilliant architect.
They have a deep, passionate connection from the beginning of their relationship, and have forged a strong life, now with two children. The self-doubt and conflict that arise over a perceived failure in one of their careers causes upheaval to their power balance. Jealousy, insecurity, rage, and frustration take the passion they have established and turn it into a sharp-edged sword that now threatens their relationship. It all leads up to an explosion of animosity with the vestiges of love, friendship, and romance left on the floor. Yet even though it’s hanging by a thread, the sense of humor they have both nourished through the years is the glue that keeps them together and saves the thread from snapping entirely.
Director Jay Roach chose to film in Devon, England, which stands in for the Northern California setting of the story. He noted that the light there was spectacular. There is a visual of huge waves crashing against the rocky cliffs that is repeated, symbolic of the fierce power of the relationship. The town they filmed in has a real beachside café called “The Winking Prawn,” which was transformed into Ivy’s restaurant and immediately seems to gain a personality of its own with an intangible sense of warmth.
Roach is a master director of film and television, whose resume includes the Austin Powers films, Meet the Parents, Trumbo, and Bombshell. He grew up in Albuquerque, received a BA in economics from Stanford, and an MA in film production from USC. He started his career making music videos, was a cinematographer, and won acclaim as a director for his political drama Recount in 2008. Roach is married to Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles.
The cast is one reason to see The Roses. Colman and Cumberbatch play off one another beautifully. Colman is a master of sarcastic comedy, as proven in The Favourite (2018), and The Crown (2019-2023), and she’s also a superb dramatic actress, as in The Lost Daugher (2021). Colman’s parents were a nurse and a surveyor, and Colman once worked as a cleaner. Cumberbatch is the son of actors, but did not begin his career as a thespian, as he considered acting too competitive.
After finishing school at Harrow, where he painted large canvasses on an arts scholarship, he took a year off to volunteer as an English teacher in a Tibetan monastery in Darjeeling, India. When he returned, he summoned the courage to study acting at LAMDA. In 2004, he won praise as “Stephen Hawking” in the TV movie Hawking. Since then, he has worked steadily in film and TV. He still draws and sketches and donates his art to charity auctions. The kids in the film are great too, especially Hala Finley and Wells Rapaport, who play the teen version. They show an easy grasp of sarcasm and independence beyond their years, reflecting the vastly different parenting styles of their mom and dad. Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon are well cast as the couple’s best friends.
Olivia Colman’s wardrobe is spectacular. Her vibrant outfits add depth to Ivy’s personality and establish her as a creative power player equal to her husband. PC Williams, costume designer for this film, had won praise for her designs for the Peabody-Award-winning TV show We Are Lady Parts, about a British all-female, all-Muslm punk rock band. Williams also designed the costumes for the Amy Winehouse bio, Back to Black.
So much of this story of relationships may be recognizable to you. I find them familiar, as I grew up in a decidedly dysfunctional home, but we were always able to laugh. This film keeps its sense of humor flowing underneath all the cacophony of discord, so it never loses its fun. The end is unexpected. Is it an end or a symbolic beginning? With imagination, you may see it as a philosophical epiphany.
Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry, which has been the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a Talent Manager with Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. kboole@gmail.com
