Ainsley Harris ’26
Staff Writer
The Roses hit theaters on Aug. 29, and, despite many critics’ reviews to the contrary, I adored it. Before I begin my review, a disclosure: the film is based on the 1981 novel The War of the Roses and the 1989 film of the same name. I have neither seen nor read The War of the Roses. This review judges The Roses on its own success as a film, not as an adaptation.
The Roses is a marriage movie. Still reeling in the theater after the closing credits, I texted my parents: “You guys need to watch The Roses.” I did not follow it up with “Don’t take this personally.” For their sake, I probably should have.
The movie features love at first sight, a long honeymoon period, growing tension, and even disastrous couples counseling. It shows a marriage that falls apart, and falls apart, and falls apart. As any dark comedy requires, this premise is taken to the extreme while teasing out the universal frustrations of marriage: feeling underappreciated, overwhelmed, unloved, trapped, and adrift. The movie works wonderfully, because what is marriage if not a dark comedy?
The protagonists Ivy and Theo Rose, culinary genius and architectural mastermind, respectively, are played by Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch. The two slot into the role of married couple perfectly, burning with chemistry, dazzling with banter, and stewing in raw emotion. Coming off a semester in London, I can definitively say they were a quintessentially British couple.
The film takes the audience through the Roses’ picture-perfect love story to its agonizing end. Theo and Ivy support each other’s genius and dreams. They rescue each other from awkward social situations. Yet, by the end of the movie, you, me, their children, and their therapist are begging them to get a divorce.
I experienced the full range of human emotion while watching this movie. I can only hope your audience was as interactive as mine; this movie requires it. I cried. I laughed. I squeamishly closed my eyes. I whispered, “I hate this, I hate this, I hate this.” I considered walking out of the theater to catch my breath. Some guy behind me and I yelled “WHAT!” in unison.
I am, however, a novice to the dark comedy genre. And, in a way, the film feels like a beginner’s introduction rather than a truly dark comedy. It flits away from darker moments rather than forcing the audience to linger in uncomfortable scenes.
That is not to say The Roses fails in what it sets out to accomplish. Underneath its vicious banter, it rawly portrays marriage’s tensions and frustrations. It raises the questions: What is your responsibility to yourself, your gifts, and your vocation? What is your responsibility to your family, your loved ones, and your spouse? Can you ever fulfill both? It is Theo and Ivy’s pursuit of excellence that they find so desirable in each other, yet it is simultaneously what tears them apart. The open ending, while compromising the film’s success as a dark comedy, allows these tensions to remain unresolved.
While I found the plot, pacing, and themes compelling, it was the individual performances that elevated the film to excellence.
Olivia Colman as Ivy is a ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’ turned emotionally unavailable wife with weaponized incompetence. Ivy becomes twisted, cruel, and cunning, yet Colman oozes charm, making it impossible for the audience not to root for her.
Cumberbatch plays Theo, a genius architect turned overworked, under-appreciated househusband. He manages to perfectly encapsulate both hyper-competence and utter patheticness. In the words of my friend, Cumberbatch “somehow had me cheering for a middle-aged white British man to reclaim his power.” Unfortunately for the viewer, that reclaiming of power, his magnum opus, is kinda ugly.
Kate McKinnon plays Amy, a friend of the Roses married to Andy Samberg’s character, Barry. McKinnon simultaneously manages to play herself, a conservative butch lesbian, and an unstoppably horny straight woman regularly sexually harassing Theo. In the midst of all that, she repeatedly calls Ivy “baby girl.”
The Roses is a clever, witty film supported by fantastic individual performances. It is an excellent watch, especially if you’re looking for an introduction to dark comedy.
Photo Courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes
