ROSES, THE
(director: Jay Roach; screenwriter: Tony McNamara/based on the book The War of the Roses by Warren Adler; cinematographer: Florian Hoffmeister; editor: Jon Poli; music: Theodore Shapiro; cast: Benedict Cumberbatch (Theo Rose), Olivia Colman (Ivy Rose), Andy Samberg (Barry), Allison Janney (Eleanor, divorce lawyer), Belinda Bromilow (Janice), Ncuti Gatwa (Jeffrey, head waiter), Sunita Mani (Jane, sous chef), Zoë Chao (Sally), Jamie Demetriou (Rory), Kate McKinnon (Amy), Caroline Partridge (Sylvia, food critic), Emily Piggford (Lily), Delaney Quinn (younger Hattie Rose), Ollie Robinson (younger Roy Rose), Wells Rappaport (older Roy Rose), Hala Finley (older Hattie Rose); Runtime: 105; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Adam Ackland, Leah Clarke, Ed Sinclair, Tom Carver, Jay Roach, Michelle Graham; Searchlight Pictures; 2025)
“Despite a classy ensemble cast it’s a disappointment.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The American filmmaker Jay Roach (” Coastal Elites”/”Bombshell”) directs this update on Danny DeVito’s 1989 film The War of the Roses. It’s scripted by the Brit writer Tony McNamara, who bases it on the 1981 novel The War of the Roses by Warren Adler. It’s a tiresome rom/com about a couple trying to save their bad marriage. Despite a classy ensemble cast it’s a disappointment.
It opens with a bickering couple attending a marriage counseling session, who tell in a hateful way what they like and don’t like about each other. Ivy (Olivia Colman) goes from a housewife to the chef restaurant owner of We Got Crabs, and her hubby, Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch), is the innovative top architect for an elite architecture firm. They are British immigrants living near San Francisco Bay, in Monecito, whose marriage becomes the source for black-comedy when she professionally has greater success than he does thanks to a rave review from a top newspaper food critic (Caroline Partridge) and his career hits the skids when during a storm one of his key building designs in San Francisco, the East Bay Maritime Museum, has its roof collapse.
The couple have fraternal twins (Delaney Quinn plays Hattie at 10 years old. Ollie Robinson plays Roy at 10 years old. Hala Finley portrays Hattie in her teens, while Wells Rappaport portrays Roy).
Through flashbacks we learn how they met in London, married in California, and details about their married life.
The Roses’s are friends with the aging real estate lawyer Barry (Andy Samberg) and his horny wife Amy (Kate McKinnon), and with his workplace colleagues Rory (Jamie Demetriou) and his wife Sally (Zoë Chao). There are snarky comical scenes (more creepy than funny) of the couples playing parlor games.
The sequel tones down the original’s mean-spirited clashes, offering instead a gentler and glossier dark comedy about a marriage that took a wrong turn. But, in its cop out ending, it takes no stand on what’s right and wrong in their marriage by playing things too safe for a satire on marriages.
REVIEWED ON 9/2/2025 GRADE: C+
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