Review: The Roses

Directed by: Jay Roach

Written by: Tony McNamara

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, Andy Samberg, Allison Janney, Sunita Mani

Rating: [4/5]

Of the many tenets of marriage, sacrifice and selflessness comes as part of the arrangement. Instead of focusing on what works best for one individual, it widens to include another person and major decisions must meet the need of the collective instead of just one person. Through its razor-sharp comedy and callousness, The Roses presents a marriage ready to meet its breaking point and delivers a thoroughly entertaining time. 

Happily married with kids, Ivy (Olivia Colman) and Theo Rose (Benedict Cumberbatch) and have seemingly figured it out. Ivy sacrificed her career aspirations when they started a family and live with Theo’s work as an architect to sustain their way of life. When a horrific incident occurs that leaves Theo unemployed, Ivy steps in through a new career for her that switches their roles in the family and unearthing some feelings that laid dormant for some time. 

While as sharp as the thorns found on that beautifully velvety flower, The Roses beyond everything else serves as a fun look at the ever-changing needs to make a marriage succeed. The dynamics do not always remain stagnant, and therefore any shake up to the status quo unveils the true belief and actions by the partners in the relationship. With Theo and Ivy’s marriage, the former got to thrive in his career, while the latter found it best to leave workplace passions to care for her family. Everything worked out perfectly for them with this dynamic but Theo losing his job and Ivy thriving in fame for her work as a chef allows a bit of resentment to exist, which sets everything in motion. 

Once this swap in responsibilities flip, we can see how their personalities manifest in their new environment. The running gag of how much Theo has revamped their children’s diet and exercise regiment is hilarious. Similarly, the scenes with Ivy and her excelling restaurant provide some genuinely funny comedic moments. It all comes together with this brewing resentment and as the cracks begin to widen, the anger oozes out until the toothpaste has fully been released from the tube. 

As their relationship begins to crumble and divorce feels imminent, these two engage some of the pettiest and vindictive behavior towards one another that seemingly had no limit. Scene after scene where they tried to hit each other under the belt left me in complete disbelief of just how far they would go to get what they want. It comes with a real nastiness, made better by the fact all of this occurs under this darkly comedic lens that makes it so entertaining. These two truly go for the jugular and it serves to highlight the writer at the center of this film, Tony McNamara. 

With the direction of this film lacking, it was more than made up for by the writing, which came from the wonderful McNamara. His collaborations with Yorgos Lanthimos in The Favourite and Poor Things led to the Greek filmmaker’s greatest two films to date, with McNamara’s writing being a major reason why. Through this film he adapts a novel that previously had a film adaptation and while I cannot speak to the quality of the other iterations, what he manages to create here provides the perfect weaponry these two actors utilize to throw haymakers at each other. 

Speaking of the actors, a collaboration by Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman was not something I ever thought I needed but proved to be a collaboration that yielded great results. Olivia Colman has always demonstrated this ability to operate well in everything she does, but there’s something about her in comedies that just hit a different level. The way she can so easily deliver some of the sharpest and cruelest dialogue with a smile on her face works wonders and she puts on a perfect performance as Ivy Rose as she goes through this tumultuous period. The surprise, however, was Benedict Cumberbatch as his foray into comedy does not happen often, but he completely knocks it out of the park as Theo. He portends to display this nicety in the way he navigates this whole situation, but he does some of the most sinister actions in this film to get under the skin of Ivy that truly knew no bounds. Cumberbatch plays this perfectly and proved a worthy counterpart to Colman as this pair duke it out. 

Such a devilishly fun time, The Roses speaks on the push and pull that exists in all marriages and what ultimately happens when one pull changes the dynamic so much that it threatens to end it all. For all of the sweetness seen at the beginning of their relationship, seeing how it devolves into these two mercilessly trying to tear each other down is truly shocking. However, all of this comes under the guise of comedy that works so well in sanding off some of the edges of the true intentions behind these actions. All of this culminates in a thoroughly entertaining film navigating in some familiar waters with a fresh perspective.