'The Roses' A Review

 

The Roses is a black comedy, a remake of the 1989 film The War of the Roses, itself an adaptation of the novel. Repressed, out of touch, wealthy couple Ivy(Olivia Colman) and Theo(Benedict Cumberbatch) find their unhealthy and doomed marriage slowly disintegrating after they switch roles in the household.

Colman and Cumberbatch are no doubt fine actors but neither is able to really give a performance here that is grounded in any kind of dramatic or comedic reality. Cumberbatch in particular struggles with the comedy and what were left with is just two ugly characters being ugly and cruel to each other. This confusion extends to the supporting cast. Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon seem to be in a totally different movie and appear to be mostly improvising. Sunita Mani and Ncuti Gatwa are woefully underutilized and their presence smacks of tokenism. Jamie Demetriou and Zoë Chao seem to serve no purpose. The casting itself, not half bad, but the script is so dead, the tone so mismanaged it's a shame anyone signed up for this.

Visually the film is clunky, obviously shot in the UK(as a stand in for Northern California) with some extensive and transparent greenscreen work it just looks unprofessional and unfinished. The soundtrack is full of some treacly covers and serves to exacerbate the convoluted and ineffective tone.

Dated, regressive, unfunny, overly(unintentionally) serious. A nihilist, sad, profoundly uninteresting look at marriage at least 30 years out of date.

Currently in theaters.

Don't See It.