Review: "The Roses"

The Roses is a reimagining and retelling of Warren Adler’s 1981 novel “The War of the Roses” which was made into a movie back in 1989.  It starred Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito (who also directed the movie) and earned a respectable $160 million at the box office.

It was a very dark contemporary comedy about a warring couple whose hatred for each other becomes progressively and pathologically  all-consuming and ultimately, tragically self-destructive.  It was less funny than just plain mean spirited, and downright nasty.  I really disliked it.

Time has passed and as is sometimes the case in Hollywood, someone spots a movie from the past and says, “Hey, we need to re-make this, it could be really good” (as in, “it might make us a lot of money”).

Feelers go out, and when top tier, bankable talent like Olivia Coleman and Benedict Cumberbatch are lured aboard, it gives the appearance that everything is indeed coming up roses.  The addition of a great comedy director like Jay Roach whose resume includes:  the Austin Powers movies as well as Meet the Parents (2000) and Meet the Fockers (2004) and some supporting acting from the likes of SNL’s Kate McKinnon and Andy Samberg would seem to further insure sure-fire a hit at the box office.

It's the kind of splashy star power that looks good on the movie posters but doesn’t necessarily guarantee success on the big screen.

That’s the case with The Roses.  Despite the fact that the details of the story have been extensively re-worked, the core of it still involves a loving couple who eventually fall out of love and into a descending spiral of hatred and pain.

It’s a story of professional jealousy.  Cumberbatch’s Theo Rose is an architect whose modern masterpiece of a museum comes tumbling down during a destructive coastal storm.  His career is over. 

Luckily, his wife’s career as a world-class seafood entrepreneur is just taking off.  He agrees to become Mister Mom for a while, taking care of their young son and daughter while Ivy conquers the culinary world and expands her restaurant business. 

The imbalance becomes psychologically damaging, something that everyone around them (including their kids, and everyone in the audience) can’t help but notice.  It takes forever for them to figure it out themselves, but by then, they are lashing out at each other in ways that are meant to be darkly funny. 

They seem to enjoy torturing each other and inflicting increasing doses of pain.  When they decide to finally call it quits and split, the blow-out over the ownership of their beautiful, newly-constructed seaside home becomes the final straw. 

Theo designed and built it.  Ivy paid for it.  Neither is willing to give it up.  And so, the final battle of their private war escalates to the point of knife throwing and pistol shots.  One of the pistol shots, fired by Ivy, sends their modern dining room chandelier crashing to pieces, a reference to the famous, climactic chandelier moment at the end of the original War of the Roses.

While The Roses has its share of funny lines and gags (the name of  Ivy’s restaurant is “We’ve Got Crabs”), it falls far short of sky-high expectations in terms of the comedy potential, considering the level of talent in front of the camera as well as behind it.  While it is a joy watching the work of veteran actors like Coleman and Cumberbatch appearing together (hurtling insults and household objects at each other), there is an overriding sense that they could have done so much more with a better script.

Opportunities are squandered in The Roses.  The surprise cameo appearance of Allison Janney playing a ruthless, attack dog toting divorce lawyer is pretty much thrown away save for the moment when she and Theo’s legal representative Barry (Andy Samberg), following a brutal settlement argument, instantly switch gears and cheerily talk about getting together for an upcoming social event.  It’s a lot of setup for a small helping of legal schtick.

The Roses isn’t your garden variety comedy.  Like War of the Roses, it’s about jealousy, anger and hatred, and the worst side of human nature that can come to light even between two people who once deeply loved and respected each other.  It’s a sad truth about human nature, but it may not make for great comedy in a world where widespread hatred is disturbingly on the rise.

The Roses is rated R.