A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Roses” (2025, 4*, 15).
We have met the Roses before. 1989 saw Danny De Vito direct his second directorial feature “The War of The Roses” (his first was “Throw Momma From The Train” two years earlier). Based on the novel by Warren Adler and with a script by Michael Leeson, it is a dark and poisonous black comedy. So dark in fact that it was released as an ’18’ certificate in the UK (it would be an easy ’15’ today!)
Many viewers (and I have seen lots of comments to this effect in my Threads feed) were very much turned off by all of the bitterness and bile. (Watching it again before watching this version, I personally found it a blackly comic delight…. a 4.5 star triumph, for which I only docked half a star for pulling a gut-punch with the dog too early…. an act that smells of test screenings and studio interference!)
Now a mere 36 years later, we have a remake – or rather, a ‘reimagining’ – of the story, based on the original source novel. The once loving but bickering couple are back. The pets are gone. There’s a chandelier moment. But will it retain its cutting edge?
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
Theo Rose (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a successful British architect who moves with his wife Ivy (Olivia Colman) to Mendocino in California. Ivy is a talented chef and Theo encourages her to reignite her passion by starting a seafood restaurant to ‘keep her busy’. When the tables are turned and Theo finds himself as a house-husband with Ivy being hugely successful, the cracks in their marriage start to show.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Very strong language, strong sex references, threat, drug misuse”.)
Talent:
Starring: Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kate McKinnon, Andy Samberg, Ncuti Gatwa, Sunita Mani, Zoë Chao, Jamie Demetriou, Allison Janney, Hala Finley, Delaney Quinn, Wells Rappaport, Ollie Robinson.
Directed by: Jay Roach.
Written by: Tony McNamara. (Based on the novel by Warren Adler.)
Running Time: 1h 45m.
Summary:
Positives:
- A really witty script that keeps the story bouncing along in very entertaining fashion.
- Colman and Cumberbatch are fabulous together.
- Clever titles; clever music choices.
Negatives:
- I’m sorry, but though some of her lines are good, Kate McKinnon is again highly annoying.
- None of the places shown look anything like California!
- The trailer – especially the 15+ rated one – spoils many of the best moments.
Full Review of “The Roses”:
It’s a much lighter shade of dark.
Whereas the 1989 original might be termed a blackly-comedic drama, this remake is much more leaning into the comedy, albeit a distinctly dark comedy at times. The are far fewer “Ugh!” moments in this; no dead pets; and serious injuries are few. I’ve not read the original novel to know if the twist is in it, but the emasculation of Theo, being usurped by Iris’s skyrocketing career, achieves more of a reason for the malevolence that follows compared to the Kathleen Turner/Michael Douglas version of the Roses.
Some of the scenes are outright hilarious, such as a call where Theo is de-nitting the kid’s hair while Iris is saying “ooh yes, more champagne please” on a private jet. (This reminded me of a phone call I had some years ago when I rang the Illustrious Mrs Movie Mann and described the view from the 35th floor of the IBM Hong Kong tower while she, with gritted teeth, described how she was “scraping the ice off the f****** car so that I can take your f****** children to f****** school”! Ah… good times!)
It is sad to say that many of the best gems of the film’s script are spoiled by the trailer. But there is enough good stuff embedded in there such that, if one joke feels a bit stale, there is another just around the corner to fill the gap.
Cumberbatch and Colman are the dream pairing.
Olivia Colman has always been a great comedy actress, starting her TV career in series with David Mitchell and Robert Webb and only more recently branching out into more dramatic roles. But it comes as something of a surprise to find that Benedict Cumberbatch also displays some great comic timing and the combination of the pair of them is absolutely terrific.
There’s a good supporting cast as well, with Andy Samberg playing the Danny De Vito role of Theo’s desperate divorce lawyer and Allison Janney as a bit of a rottweiler (with an actual rottweiler) as Iris’s lawyer, out for blood.
The wonderful Ncuti Gatwa and Sunita Mani make a fine double act as Iris’s employees at the restaurant and Zoë Chao and Jamie Demetriou have good comic interplay as Sally and Rory, another couple with clearly unresolved issues.
A nod as well to the four personable youngsters – Hala Finley, Delaney Quinn, Wells Rappaport and Ollie Robinson – who play the kids Hattie and Roy at two different ages. Delaney Quinn was particularly delightful as the younger Hattie.
But where the casting wheels came off the track for me was with Kate McKinnon who I’m afraid is an actress whose style just manages to grate with me. She was most appropriately cast as ‘Weird Barbie’ in “Barbie“. But sadly, she seems to do the ‘weird Barbie’ act in just about every other film she’s in too. Which I find really irritating. The material she’s given here – as a sexual predator launching herself at Theo – is good and funny, but the delivery still managed to rub me up the wrong way.
Mendocino? Not Mendocino!
This is a film that is supposed to be set in coastal California. I’m sorry, but I have never seen footage that looks less like it was filmed in coastal California! I commented when first seeing the trailer that “That looks like Devon”, and I was right!
The seaside scenes were actually filmed in Salcombe in Devon: “We’ve Got Crabs” is actually a restaurant called “The Winking Prawn” which, I guess, must be doing VERY good business since the release of the film. You even see, in the shot with Theo and the two kids on the beach, a white van drive along the cliff road behind him and I thought “that looks like it’s driving on the left”…. oops!
The Roses’ garden also looks like an English country garden. It actually looks less like a Devon country garden and more like one from the home counties: perhaps (as the inside scenes were filmed at Pinewood) these were from a house in Buckinghamshire?
Either way, trying to palm these scenes off as California is a travesty and the filmmakers should have known better. It would have lost little in the telling if the Roses had actually moved down to Devon. Iris could still have taken a Transatlantic flight to New York for her photo shoot. A bit sloppy in my book.
Clever titles and needle drops.
What I will also give credit to is the design of the opening titles: illustrating, in animated form, the loved up couple slowly being separated and then sliding inexorably into their own separate glass bottles. Very neat. Very clever.
The music by Theodore Shapiro is nicely fitting to the mood of the film and there are some great needle drops including “Happy Together” by Susanna Hoffs and Rufus Wainwright and “Love Hurts” by Susanna Hoffs and Eric D. Johnson.
Summary Thoughts:
I don’t think anything can top the 1989 original for acidity and pure black comedy. But if you carve that out of your mind and go into this as a new, separate, screwball comedy then I think you will have a good time. If I used quarter stars, I would have made this a 3.75…. but I have decided to err on the generous side.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkgMaS5gbaA. As mentioned, this trailer gives away far too many of the best gags and if you’ve been lucky enough to avoid it, keep doing so.
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