Jay Roach’s The Roses arrives like a smile that slowly curdles, which, for a movie about marriage imploding under the weight of ego and ambition, feels exactly right. This is not a remake of The War of the Roses so much as a sly mutation of it, filtered through modern anxieties about success, relevance, and the quiet terror of being outpaced by the person you married.
Benedict Cumberbatch plays Theo Rose with a simmering self importance that gradually cracks into something brittle and dangerous. He is a man who believes his talent should have guaranteed permanence, and watching that belief rot is half the movie’s pleasure. Olivia Colman, as Ivy Rose, is the real weapon here. She begins warm, funny, and disarmingly grounded, then slowly reveals a sharper edge as her career blossoms and her patience evaporates. Colman has a gift for making emotional cruelty feel conversational, like she’s apologizing while sharpening the knife.
Roach directs with an unexpectedly controlled hand. Known for directing Austin Powers and Meet the Parents, he resists the urge to push every scene for laughs, letting discomfort linger. The house at the center of the film becomes a pressure cooker, shot with a cleanliness that feels almost mocking. Florian Hoffmeister’s cinematography bathes domestic spaces in calm light while emotional chaos spreads like mold behind the walls. Theodore Shapiro’s score adds a playful menace, nudging scenes forward without begging for attention.
But the film’s biggest strength is also its flaw. Its tonal balancing act sometimes wobbles. Supporting characters lean too hard into caricature, briefly yanking us out of the marital trench warfare that otherwise feels brutally precise. And while the script skewers ambition with real bite, it occasionally settles for cleverness where deeper emotional devastation might have landed harder.
Still, The Roses works because it understands that modern divorce is about scorekeeping. Watching these two count their losses, and weaponize their wins, is darkly funny and very uncomfortable.
RHFC Rating: 6.5/10 🍿
