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Jay Roach has always had a knack for putting relationships under pressure—Meet the Parents, anyone?—but with The Roses, he trades awkward dinner parties for something sharper, darker, and far less forgiving.

A reimagining of Warren Adler’s novel and the 1989 classic The War of the Roses, the film stars Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch as Ivy and Theo Rose, a couple who look picture-perfect from the outside: careers on track, kids thriving, love intact. Scratch the surface, though, and the rot begins to show. Theo’s career as a successful architect tanks just as Ivy’s ambitions as a chef and restaurant owner take flight, and soon their marriage morphs into a battlefield of bruised egos and petty cruelties.

The script, by Poor Things writer Tony McNamara, is an onslaught of daggers disguised as playful banter. He zeroes in on the absurdity of the small, everyday wounds couples inflict on each other—the jokes that cut too deep, the silences that sting longer than any argument. McNamara doesn’t deal in grand betrayals but in the steady drip of resentment. It’s funny, until it’s not.

Colman and Cumberbatch walk a razor’s edge in their performances. Colman gives Ivy the kind of simmering warmth that can flip to menace in a blink, while Cumberbatch captures the slow implosion of a man watching his own relevance fade. Together, they spark in ways that feel dangerous and alive. Still, fans of the original will note that they don’t quite reach the fever-pitch volatility of Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. Good chemistry, yes. Legendary? Not quite.

Tone-wise, Roach goes for a juggling act: part marital comedy, part tragedy, part social critique. At its best, it’s brutally honest and painfully relatable—like eavesdropping on a couple fighting in the next room and realizing they’re fighting about you. But the second act stalls. The rhythm of joke-barb-silence begins to repeat itself, and the satire briefly collapses into a flat comedy of errors. It’s clever, but not always incisive.

The ending though, is a knockout. Without spoiling, Roach and McNamara choose a finale that’s at once daring, depressing, and oddly satisfying. Some will call it bleak; others, cathartic. Either way, it lands with a sting. Additionally, kudos to whoever fought to play the closing credits over  the The Turtles' "So Happy Together." A pure stroke of genius right there.

What makes The Roses resonate is its refusal to reduce marital collapse to personal failings alone. Yes, Theo and Ivy are flawed, but they’re also trapped in a culture obsessed with appearances and success. The film suggests that marriages don’t implode in isolation—they buckle under the weight of society’s relentless demands to “have it all.” Real? Yes. Sad? Yes. Fair? Unfortunately, no.

That tension makes the film both fascinating and frustrating. It’s too raw to be pure entertainment, too entertaining to be dismissed as bleak melodrama. You laugh, you cringe, and you maybe wince at how much it reminds you of real life.

The Roses isn’t flawless. It’s uneven, sometimes repetitive, and occasionally too mean-spirited to be fun. But it’s also darkly hilarious, deeply human, and anchored by two terrific performances. It lingers.

The Roses isn’t as iconic as the 1989 version, but still worth seeing. Come for Colman and Cumberbatch’s sparks, stay for McNamara’s wicked dialogue. Just don’t expect to leave entirely unscathed.

MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 105 mins
Director: Jay Roach
Writer: Tony McNamara
Cast: Olivia Colman; Benedict Cumberbatch; Kate McKinnon
Genre: Drama | Comedy
Tagline: All's Fair when Love is War.
Memorable Movie Quote: "Sometimes Ivy's mad at me and I can't even tell."
Distributor: Searchlight Pictures
Official Site:
Release Date: August 29, 2025
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: Life seems easy for picture-perfect couple Ivy (Colman) and Theo (Cumberbatch): successful careers, great kids, an enviable sex life. But underneath the façade of the perfect family is a tinderbox of competition and resentments that's ignited when Theo's professional dreams come crashing down.