Sunita Mani Archives - Sean Kelly On Movies

A couple begins a messy divorce in The Roses. Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Ivy (Olivia Colman) Rose have been married for ten years and seem to be living a happy life in Mendocino, California, with two children and hanging out with their friends Barry (Andy Samberg), Amy (Kate McKinnon), Sally (Zoë Chao) and Rory (Jamie Demetriou). While Theo is busy with his thriving architectural career, Ivy begins an upstart seafood restaurant, though it is often empty, apart from her employees, Jeffrey (Ncuti Gatwa) and Jane (Sunita Mani). However, on a night of a terrible storm, Theo's career literally falls apart, while Ivy finds success after unexpected praise by a food critic. As Ivy's culinary career begins to take off, Theo is left as a stay-at-home dad. As tension begins to brew between Theo and Ivy, the latter helps Theo build a dream house for himself. However, Theo's unhappiness soon reaches the point where he wants a divorce, and he and Ivy begin to fight over who gets to keep the house, literally. The Roses Synopsis The Roses is a dark comedy directed by Jay Roach (Meet the Parents, Bombshell) and is loosely based on the novel "The War of the Roses" by Warren Adler, which was previously adapted as a 1989 film, directed by Danny DeVito, which he also starred in alongside Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. This new reimagining stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Coleman as Theo and Ivy, who meet in London and soon move away together to the United States, where they are seemingly happily married for ten years. However, the couple's dynamic changes when Theo's boat-shaped maritime museum collapses during a storm, at the same time that Ivy's restaurant "We've Got Crabs" begins to take off. Fired from his job as an architect, Theo is left to care for the couple's two kids, including a disciplined diet and exercise regimen, while Ivy's growing culinary career sees her barely at home. This results in Theo developing a growing hatred towards Ivy. The passive-aggressive behaviour the couple begin exchanging with each other soon explodes into violence, as Theo seeks a divorce from Ivy and the two fight to see who gets to keep their house. My Thoughts on The Roses Even though the film is effectively a remake of 1989's The War of the Roses, or at least a readaptation of Warren Adler's novel, it can be surmised that one of the reasons that the title was shortened to The Roses was because the plot was expanded to feature everything up to and including "The War." The film starts on the right foot, beginning with a very passive-aggressive couple's therapy session, before flashing back to show Theo and Ivy's first meeting. However, the major issue with The Roses is that the film takes way too long to get to the nastiness of the couple's divorce. Director Jay Roach, with his first feature film credit since 2019's Bombshell, and writer Tony McNamara (Poor Things), opt to take a slow-burning approach when depicting the events leading up to Theo and Ivy's bitter divorce. It's such a slow burn that the couple's kids suddenly age into teenagers and are sent away to school. It is not until the final act of the film that the War of The Roses truly begins. While Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Coleman are fine stepping into the shoes of Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, there is no real surrogate for Danny DeVito's character from the original film. The closest would be a single scene appearance by Allison Janney as Ivy's divorce lawyer, Eleanor, who battles it out with Andy Samberg's completely incompetent Barry. The rest of the cast of The Roses seems to be there just to fill out a disastrous dinner scene that sets the third act in motion, though Kate McKinnon's Amy gets some moments, with her less-than-subtle attempts to seduce Theo, right in front of her husband Barry. While the actual war of The Roses is actually pretty great, complete with a very ironic final gag, the film just takes way too long to reach that point. While Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Coleman are well cast, The Roses probably could've used a better director than Jay Roach. As such, it is probably best to skip this reimagining, at least theatrically, and seek out the 1989 original.

The Roses

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