In 1989 Danny DeVito directed a critically and commercially successful black comedy adaptation of Warren Adler’s 1981 novel about a marriage turned sour and a brutal divorce “fight to the death” that starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. DeVito did co-star duty as the fictional couple’s long-suffering, traumatised lawyer. Though it was a stand-alone story, the film marked the third collaboration between Douglas, Turner and DeVito after the hit action-adventure comedies Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile. It benefited from the success of those films and from a sharp satirical focus on the changing domestic power and gender relations of the end of the Regan era.
Fast forward 25 years with Hollywood stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of reboots, sequels and half-baked ideas and on paper, the idea of dusting off Adler’s novel for a new version might initially seem to have some potential. Add, arguably, the two best and most recognised British actors working today — Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman — to the mix and interest is piqued. A script by Oscar-nominated Tony McNamara (The Favourite and Poor Things) ups the ante and the comedy directing experience of Jay Roach (Meet the Parents, Austin Powers, The Campaign) provides the cherry on top of a project that any agent would kill to be handling.
But the final product falls disappointingly short of the noirish screwball heights of DeVito’s 1989 outing and also proves far too tame for the more brutal, nastier, rage-driven tone of our present era — despite the efforts of its stars, who are the only real reason to keep watching. Not everything that glitters on a studio executive’s PowerPoint translates into on-screen gold.
We begin in the office of an American couples therapist who's soon shocked to her core by the bitter insults and outrageous cursing of her acerbic British clients the Roses — Ivy (Colman) and Theo (Cumberbatch) — whose list of pros about each other soon descends into a series of vitriolic and bitingly British barbs before they’re told that this therapist sees no hope for them. From there the story jumps to the meet-cute beginning of the Roses’ story in London, where disgruntled architect Theo finds confident chef Ivy in the restaurant kitchen and within minutes, they’re getting to know each other intimately in a cold storeroom.
Years later and the couple are now living in the picturesque California coastal town of Mendocino with their two children. Theo is about to make his name in the architect world thanks to his design for a maritime museum that includes a metal sail on its roof and Ivy, well, she’s left her chef ambitions behind but finds joy in creating sugar-drenched desserts for the kids made in the shape of iconic buildings. Being a good, modern husband, Theo pushes Ivy to take up her passion and buys her a rundown local beach shack that she turns into the aptly named We’ve Got Crabs bistro, which despite her culinary prowess just can’t seem to attract any visitors.
When fate intervenes in the form of a freak storm that destroys Theo’s lofty architectural ambitions and sends an influential food critic seeking shelter to Ivy’s restaurant, roles reverse and soon Ivy is jetting around the country with celebrity chefs while Theo stays at home and preposterously becomes a health-sadist drill sergeant to the kids. They become sugar-refusing Übermenschen who, much to their father’s joy and their mother’s disappointment, earn themselves spots in a faraway elite athletic school.
When the children leave it’s uncertain whether Theo and Ivy have drifted so far apart that they have no chance or whether there’s still enough love left to save them. Ivy seems to believe they can survive and bankrolls Theo to create their dream house, a luxury modern mansion overlooking the ocean, and for a moment it seems equilibrium has been restored.
As rancour ratchets up and love turns to abhorrence the final act sets itself up for the comical violent madness that's essentially the entire point of the story, but here, with little to hint at it and too many trite sentimental resolutions preceding it, the final fireworks are neither fiery nor absurdly darkly funny enough to pull off a successful resolution to a story that’s limped along and has wasted much of its on-paper potential.
Cumberbatch and Colman are as good as they can be given the stodginess of the material and watchable as ever, but the rest of the film is glued together flimsily. A host of comically adept co-stars including Andy Sandberg, Kate McKinnon, Ncuti Gatwa and Sunita Mani lend very little other than the attraction of their credits thanks to secondary character work that makes their talent all but invisible.
As a slightly chuckle-inducing, home-watching, cautionary relationship tale The Roses is adequate but as a big-screen second attempt it’s in need of some therapy.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.