Review: 'The Roses' pits Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch as a married couple fighting each other and an overly cluttered script
If “The Roses” was just about the dark heart of a couple’s divorce at its center, it could have been one of the great spite-driven comedies of the modern era — if only director Jay Roach and screenwriter Tony McNamara hadn’t gone soft.
This is a revision, of sorts, of the 1989 comedy “The War of the Roses,” in which director Danny DeVito piloted the story of a lawyer (Michael Douglas) and a homemaker-turned-caterer (Kathleen Turner) through a loving marriage that curdles into loathing and attempted murder. The new movie doesn’t credit DeVito’s screenwriter, Michael J. Leeson, but does note Warren Adler, whose novel spurred both films.
Here, Theo Rose (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a London architect who despises the soulless boxy apartment buildings his firm forces him to design. One night, he escapes his colleagues at a dinner, and finds in the restaurant’s kitchen Ivy (Olivia Colman), a chef who’s more talented than her bosses will let her be. They fall for each other instantly, and Theo follows Ivy to America soon after.
The movie jumps ahead 10 years, and the Roses are still giddily in love with each other and with their two children (played by Delaney Quinn and Ollie Robinson in the movie’s first half, and Hala Finley and Wells Rappaport in the second half). Theo has built his dream project, a maritime museum designed to resemble a sailing ship, and celebrates by buying Ivy what she’s always dreamed of: A seaside restaurant where she can make her amazing food.
Then the Roses’ fortunes change drastically. Theo’s museum is a disaster, collapsing in a heavy storm. That same storm forces California travelers to stop at Ivy’s restaurant — and one of them is a food critic, whose rave review sets Ivy on a stratospheric career path. Theo, blackballed by every architectural firm, channels his time and disappointment into raising the kids into athletes, while Ivy builds her food empire. And the resentment builds, from both of them.
McNamara, who wrote “The Favourite” and “Poor Things” for Yorgos Lanthimos, can’t seem to settle on Theo and Ivy’s emotional state from scene to scene. He and Roach are overly occupied with the side players that clutter up the field: The seemingly dying marriage of Amy (Kate McKinnon) and Barry (Andy Samberg), Theo’s architecture friends (Zoë Chao and Jamie Demetriou) and Ivy’s loyal restaurant employees (Sunita Mati and Ncuti Gatwa).
These talented performers — I’d watch Kate McKinnon file her taxes — aren’t given enough to work with, and we cling onto every moment hoping they’ll do something truly funny. This is a particular shame for Gatwa, recently departed from “Doctor Who,” whose abundant charisma gets wasted here.
Roach hasn’t done a broad comedy since “Dinner for Schmucks” in 2010, and has devoted his recent efforts to biopics, like “Trumbo” and “Bombshell.” He seems to have trouble finding the right tone for Colman and Cumberbatch, or anyone else, to navigate consistently.
One scene particularly smacks of desperation. It’s late in the movie, when the Rose are negotiating divorce terms — and Ivy’s hard-nosed lawyer (Allison Janney, in her only scene) comes in with a pet Rottweiler. The obvious joke is that the dog is meant to intimidate Theo — but when Janney is already doing that quite well, thank you, what’s the point of adding the Rottweiler?
Even when stranded by McNamara’s overly busy script and Roach’s idiotic direction, Colman and Cumberbatch come close sometimes to displaying the acid wit and mendacity this movie requires. These actors make a great match, especially when showing us why Theo and Ivy don’t.
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‘The Roses’
★★1/2
Opens Friday, August 29, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for language throughout, sexual content, and drug content. Running time: 105 minutes.