In 1989 director Danny DeVito brought a brutally funny dark comic approach to the screen adaptation of Warren Adler’s 1981 novel, The War Of The Roses. Now 36 years later along comes a remake from Searchlight Pictures called The Roses, leaving The War Of reference out entirely. So this version’s director Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet The Parents) and screenwriter Tony McNamara (Poor Things, The Great) have done what is called a “reimagination” rather than a remake, but of course it is a remake, and thanks in no small part to the casting of British acting icons, Benedict Cumberbatch as Theo Rose and Olivia Colman as Ivy Rose, it is well worth your time to revisit this marital showdown first inhabited by Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.
Nevertheless the main event of the book and the previous film are the wickedly vicious fights between the couple, and Searchlight’s trailer seems to emphasize that aspect of it as well, but in fact it is at least an hour before we get to any of that. Instead we see even more time devoted to simply showing this relationship through marriage, parenthood, and then business success and sudden failure for him, and business failure and sudden success for her. It does start out with a wonderful witty and biting encounter with Theo and Ivy in a session with a therapist as they verbally take acidic shots at each other while the marriage counselor declares there is, to their surprise, no hope for this pair. It backtracks from there.
With two such esteemed British stars as well as a British writer you might think this version would be set in England just to change things up. Instead the filmmakers have settled on a visually glorious Northern California coast location where the homes and neighborhood clearly show the Roses are on the upper scale of financial health, particularly with Theo’s reputation as a top architect, and a new building that is his masterpiece topped with no less than an actual ship on the roof. For Ivy, bringing up their two kids at home and playing second fiddle isn’t enough as she attempts to somehow turn her beloved crab cake recipe into a local fish restaurant, “We’ve Got Crabs” but the customers just aren’t coming. My how the fortunes of the Roses quickly turn when a storm sees Theo’s ship sink right into the rest of his building, destroying it, his reputation, and his job. At the same time, after getting Theo to spend more time doing home chores and taking care of the kids, Ivy’s restaurant is exploding, gaining major media attention and spawning spinoffs. It is the classic ‘Star Is Born’ conundrum and it doesn’t do wonders for the prickly Roses union which starts to sink further than that ship. Divorce is now in the cards but the terms are anything but of endearment.
So finally we get about a solid 20 minutes of the knock down/drag out physical damage they attempt to do unto each other, a war for sure, but late in the game of a movie more interested in showing a modern marriage and all its pitfalls in a day and age of equal ambition and individualism on the part of both husband and wife, each with desire for perfection and need for career success, not only in their marriage and family , but in very 2025 terms, for themselves.
The casting here is perfection itself with Cumberbatch and Colman bickering back and forth with all the drawing room style of a new age Rex Harrision and Kay Kendall, or maybe the Burton and Taylor of The Taming Of The Shrew with a dab of Virginia Woolf. Both show the kind of sophisticated flair neither has gotten to demonstrate in full force on screen much before, and they are spendid, going for it, yes, but throwing subtle punches along the way before the final round. Into the mix are best friends, lawyer Barry (Andy Samberg) and his wife Amy (Kate McKinnon), who are mostly observers of the wilting Roses, but with just the right touch of sympathy and nsg advice. The SNL vets are well used here and keep the comedy dryer than what they did on TV. During the initial divorce meeting with Theo, using Barry as his attorney, and Ivy really going for the juggular hiring a take-no-prisoners hardass named Eleanor played to the bitter hilt by Allison Janney who brings her killer service dog just to make it clear Ivy is in the driver’s seat. What a great scene.
Shout out to production designer Mark Ricker whose ultra modern buildings and furnishings tell us much about the Roses, along with Florian Hoffmeister’s crisp and sparkling cinematography. Roach’s direction honors the deliciously funny script McNamara has served up making this decidedly a version of this story for these times and the ever complicated war still raging between men and women.
Producers are Adam Ackland, Leah Clark, Ed Sinclair, Tom Carver, Michelle Graham, and Roach.
Title: The Roses
Distributor: Searchlight Pictures
Release Date: August 29, 2025
Director: Jay Roach
Screenplay: Tony McNamara
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, Kate McKinnon, Andy Samberg, Allison Janney, Belinda Bromilow, Ncuti Gatwa, Sunita Mani, Zoe Chao, Jamie Demetriou.
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour and 45 minutes
