DUBAI: Jay Roach’s take on Warren Adler’s acrid 1981 novel “The War of the Roses” may be less overtly savage than the 1989 adaptation starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, but it still lands plenty of punches.
Roach trades open marital warfare for a more contemporary clash of egos and expectations, infusing the story with sharp humor and modern-day sensibilities.
Two great British actors — Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch — anchor the film as Ivy and Theo Rose, whose seemingly ideal relationship implodes inside their sleek, custom-built dream home. Colman gives a layered, hysterically funny performance, while Cumberbatch captures Theo’s hurt pride and resentment as Ivy’s almost-dead career as a chef gets revitalized just as his, as an architect, nosedives overnight due to a freak catastrophe. The couple must navigate a new power dynamic within a previously loving relationship.
Roach and screenwriter Tony McNamara keep the dialogue sharp and darkly comic. The movie kicks off with an imploding couples-therapy scene that turns gratitude lists into barbed attacks.
Colman balances dry humor with quiet fury, and Cumberbatch moves seamlessly from bubbling hurt to explosive rage, making the breakdown of the Roses’ marriage both believable and extremely riveting.
The rest of the cast is stacked with talent too, though they’re mostly sidelined. Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon play Barry and Amy, a couple whose physical chemistry is all but dead. And Jamie Demetriou’s Rory and Zoe Chao’s Sally bottle up resentment after resentment, while Allison Janney gives a singularly vicious performance as a divorce lawyer. But it’s the leads who hold the focus throughout.
Coming in at under two hours, “The Roses” moves briskly. Roach’s update is less a remake than a reimagining — one that recognizes how contemporary ambition and shifting gender roles can destabilize even the most loving and chemistry-packed marriage. But it fails to deliver the no-holds-barred meanness of the original and, in the process, loses some of its soul.
For audiences seeking sharp dialogue and sensational acting, though, “The Roses” delivers. Colman and Cumberbatch turn a familiar tale of marital collapse into a darkly amusing battle of wills that is worth seeing.
