What can be said about the difficulties of marriage that hasn’t been said before? Too often we see—in both real life and in entertainment—the depressing ways in which all the things you love about a person can turn into the very things you despise. Opposites attract turns into opposites attack and we watch with uncomfortable fixation, the downward spiral of love.

Though the ground for this story has already been tread, The Roses was another dark and delightful romp of all that can go wrong in love and war, led by a pair of actors you can’t look away from.

In this remake/adaptation, screenwriter Tony McNamara transforms Warren Adler’s novel The War of the Roses and Danny Devito’s original 1989 adaptation of the same name into a devilish comedy fit for 2025. One that will have you chuckling in horror and flinching at the brutality.

Starring Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch as Ivy and Theo Rose, the film kicks off with a scorching couples therapy session. The two stars trade barbs about “what they love about the other person” that culminates in a perfectly delivered C-bomb that only the British and particularly Olivia Colman could make charming.

Similar to the original film, starring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas, the film kicks off with a rom-com worthy—if not a little ridiculous—meet-cute that goes from nice-to-meet-you to sex in a restaurant walk-in and a move to America in about five minutes. Nonetheless, we’re catapulted ten years into the future of this budding chef and rising architect’s lives where they now share two children and are living an ordinary, contented life. He works, she stays home and though Colman and Cumberbatch’s chemistry takes better form once they’re fighting, you get the “happy for now” vibe that you’re meant to.

Then, a life-altering event occurs that takes Theo from being at the top of his game to unemployed and sky-rockets Ivy into unexpected culinary stardom. In this role reversal, the foundation of their lives begins to crack.

As Theo assumes the role of stay-at-home dad on a mission and Ivy leans into her career, the tension rises and the banter that is really the heart and soul of this film begins to soar.

Surrounded by a supporting cast of friends and co-workers that includes Andy Samberg, Kate McKinnon, Sunita Mani, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Demetriou, and Zoë Chao, the companions that surround the deteriorating relationship throw in their laughs as they watch the Roses burn each other to the ground.

The Book Vs. The 1989 Film Vs. The Roses

While the original film is lauded as being a very close interpretation of the 1981 novel, The Roses certainly brings a bit more balance to the story. While Turner and Douglas’s version shows the dissatisfaction of domestic life and unhappiness driven primarily by the wife, the modern take take shows the pain of two people with career and family ambitions who can’t seem to find a middle ground where both are fulfilled. Despite their best efforts to split the tasks that lay before them, envy, frustration and stagnation plague each of their pursuits.

What the original film lacks that the latest version excels at is the humor. The dialogue is truly the shining accomplishment of The Roses and the stars are fantastic vehicles for the biting and relentless verbal assaults that transpire. Though both films get ugly… and dirty, the 1989 version doesn’t allow for much comedic relief amidst pet murder, urinating on dinner and some really unfortunate biting. Hate-fueled revenge, violent pranks, and even attempted murder run through all the versions, but only the latest softens the intensity with genuine levity.

The chandelier-crashing conclusion of the story is an epic finale we get in all three delightfully twisted tales. No winners emerge from a story where love has gone so cold, but audiences, whether fans of the book, the 1989 film or just Olivia Colman—she makes anything watch-worthy—can look forward to The Roses upholding the legacy of a bitter divorce you can’t look away from.

The War of the Roses

The War of the Roses by Warren Adler

Jonathan and Barbara Rose’s picture-perfect life shatters after his health scare, and Barbara decides she wants out. The problem is, neither will give up their beloved house. Their divorce becomes a vicious black comedy of escalation, turning the home into a battleground where each will do anything to destroy the other, no matter the cost.

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