What’s it about?

Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Ivy (Olivia Coleman) Rose are a successful couple whose seemingly perfect marriage begins to fray as their competitive and insecure natures are gradually exposed.

What’d we think?

The Roses is the second adaptation of Warren Adler’s novel The War Of The Roses (the first starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in the lead roles), and if you’re remotely familiar with either, you’ll have a pretty decent idea of what you’ll be walking into. This is an incredibly mean-spirited and darkly comic movie, and I enjoyed the absolute hell out of it. We open with the titular couple in a marriage counselling session that rapidly devolves into brutal and hilarious personal attacks on each other, before we flash backwards to how they first met, and quickly get up to speed with their life together, moving to America, their relationship with their children, and the first hints of the conflict to come.

A storm in the first act causes Theo’s career as an architect takes a downturn while at the same time causing Ivy’s restaurant to take off, resulting in the first hairline cracks to begin forming in their relationship. Sensibly, the two don’t turn on each other due to a misunderstanding or a betrayal but is instead portrayed as a death by a thousand tiny slights. They repeatedly acknowledge and address their conflict, and the film does an agonisingly good job of making them both rational enough that reconciliation always seems possible.

I loved the original film, but this take is updated for the modern day in a fashion that makes it far more cutting, with some very sensible changes to the pacing and the dynamics between the two leads. The couple’s group of friends and coworkers serve as valuable sounding boards, and the supporting cast does some great work in limited time. The conflict between the two is borne out of deeply-rooted and uncomfortably realistic insecurities, and the suffering they end up causing each other is second only to the suffering they cause themselves.

I was laughing heartily throughout and had an absolute blast, which was only enhanced by the palpable discomfort of the couples surrounding me. I may be a black-hearted bastard, but I don’t believe it’s a requirement to enjoy The Roses. It’s a well-acted and handsomely-shot film, and absolutely worth your time.