The Roses

Director: Jay Roach

When successful, but frustrated, architect Theo Rose (Benedict Cumberbatch) meets, talented, but frustrated, chef Ivy (Olivia Colman). They hit it off and fly off to a life in California. Now with a family and successful career, Theo offers to buy Ivy a building to turn into a restaurant, so she can get back to her cooking passion. But when a storm hits the California coast their lives are turned upside down. But not only their lives, but their relationship, from a loving and supportive couple, to something very different, can they recover or will they kill each other first!?

The Roses, is a new adaptation of Warren Adler’s The War of The Roses, which despite the powerhouse that is Olivia Colman, falls a little flat.

It’s a film that I’m not sure quite knows how to get its balance right. In reality it’s a pretty dark comedy, as we watch the unravelling of both a relationship and the people involved, but it tries to balance this with some slapstick revenge set pieces.  But it never really commits to either, it’s too surface level to invest in the characters enough to care about whether they can make it as a couple or not. And the slapstick is not consistently funny enough for the slapstick to pay off.

But all that said, it’s not without plusses. Olivia Colman is as wonderful as ever and she is the one person you can invest in. Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon are entertaining as the couple’s friends and there is an excellent Allison Janney cameo as Ivy’s ferocious lawyer. The script does have laughs and many of the set pieces do work. It has its moments, but just not enough of them.

The Roses is a film that doesn’t quite deliver. For all the joy that watching Olivia Colman brings, the film around her doesn’t work as well. It’s a dark comedy that doesn’t have enough depth to make you care and a slapstick comedy that isn’t quite consistently funny enough. It’s not terrible and there are laughs and performances to enjoy. It just doesn’t live up to its promise.