August 28, 2025 · Watch the official trailer
The line between love and hate can be so razor-thin sometimes that just one simple action can completely change the course of a relationship forever.
First the premise of a 1981 novel by Warren Adler and later a 1989 film, director Jay Roach and screenwriter Tony McNamara have revisited this same thought exercise with their biting dramedy simply titled “The Roses,” which released in theaters this weekend. While not simply a remake of the Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner original “The War of the Roses,” this iteration does paint with the same broad strokes.
Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman star as a couple thrust into a relationship by happenstance, and while it's not completely clear why the two have fallen in love, their characters do feel like an authentic, if rough, replication of fragile, only partially stable relationships.
Though the film spans nearly two decades of their relationship, much of the focus of “The Roses” is centered on just how this seemingly perfect pair has crumbled and fallen apart. Roach and McNamara go to great lengths to reflect the fragile nature of relationships, showcasing the same fragility in other relationships depicted in the film.
Oscar winner Colman is right at home with the absurd, sardonic, and cutting banter that McNamara has crafted for her, as her performance feels the most natural she's been since her 2018 Academy Award-winning turn in "The Favourite."
Her ability to be unflappably charming at one moment and brazenly, almost comically flustered at the next is a perfect match for her character Ivy and the ease at which Colman relishes every syllable of her sharp, witty dialogue makes for the film’s most engaging throughline.
For his part, Cumberbatch is equally engaging in the exasperated melancholy his character seems almost destined to experience. The ever-shifting nature of the couple's chemistry is delicately balanced in both performances, highlighting the fragile nature of their relationship. While not as demonstrative in his cadence as Colman, Cumberbatch softly wields the verbal daggers well in this banter repartee and more than holds his own in the more combative moments.
“Saturday Night Live” alumni Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon provide some of the film's most overt comedic moments, yet both are adept enough to soften the usual bombastic nature of their work to match the tone here. McKinnon especially relishes each bit of dialogue that allows her character to playfully blur the lines between monogamy and hedonism.
For a relationship dramedy of this sort, "The Roses" leans a bit more heavily on crude sexual innuendos and terse language than one might expect from the film's trailer although McNamara is finessed enough to keep the screenplay from leaning too vulgar. Most of the brazen parts of “The Roses” are left to McKinnon’s deft performance that teeters just on the edge of raunch but never falls completely over into the sort of banal camp that one might expect from a more sophomoric take on the subject matter.
From the director's chair, Roach takes a largely hands-off approach that allows his lead performances to shine. The rich tapestry of the film's production design and food-indulgent cinematography lean into the more elevated prestige style that casting leads like Cumberbatch and Coleman provide.
Those with sentimental attachment to the Douglas and Turner classic that this adaptation is so clearly inspired by may find themselves a tad off-put by some of the decision-making, especially in the third act, that sets "The Roses" apart from its namesake.
However, moviegoers ready to settle into the dry, cutting nature of the film's comedy and drama as well as exceptional turns from its stars might be well-served to take a chance on seeing "The Roses" in theaters.
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