The Roses

Grade: B

I live for Benedict Cumberbatch’s pronunciation of “wart” in The Roses. You can hear it in the trailer. I hope it catches on, like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “tumor” in Kindergarten Cop. Right off the bat, you will have to surrender and accept that the screenplay for The Roses is too clever for its own good. It’s a dizzying cascade of perfectly delivered one-liners and barbs, without anyone staggering, hesitating, or tripping over words. Nobody speaks that well all the time in real life. It’s all very heightened and theatrical, but the two stars are able to play off of each other, and the movie has the momentum it does due to them.

I imagine The Roses will do well this weekend. It’s the second best date night movie currently playing in theaters. (In a very strange, twisted way, Together is the one that made me feel the most romantic.) It began its life as a novel, released in 1981, called The War of the Roses. Then came the 1989 movie starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner – with Danny DeVito directing and playing a supporting character. Now, in 2025, we have The Roses, with Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman as the bickering couple on the rocks.

He is Theo Rose, a successful architect. She is Ivy Rose, a chef who is mostly a stay-at-home mom to their two children. He has bought and gifted her a little building on the beach for her to open up a crab shack a few days a week. It’s a ghost town, but she enjoys this part-part-time side hustle. A vicious storm takes down Theo’s latest design, right before it was to open. He was warned by his superiors that it wasn’t safe anyway, so they tell him his services will no longer be needed. Meanwhile, the storm brings a huge crowd of people to the crab shack for refuge, and business booms. Theo, now unemployed, stays at home raising the kids, while Ivy works more and more, needing to keep up with the growing success of the restaurant. The shoes are on the other feet.

Most of the arguments they have throughout the film seem to be of a playful nature. They were always deadpan and sarcastic anyway. Very few ring true as actual marital spats. When the real ones do occur, jealousy seems to be the underlying reason. Theo felt the best when he was the man of the house, winning the bread and doing the things. He’s killing it as a stay-at-home-dad. The kids willingly become health/fitness nuts, and they love this situation, but it’s not his favorite thing to do. Ivy is happy to be working again, but feels as if she’s drifting away from the kids, and missing out on family milestones.

Director Jay Roach (Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, the Austin Powers trilogy, Bombshell, Trumbo) has always been a master at utilizing locations, light, and old classics from the great American songbook to create a feel-good, approachable atmosphere in his movies. The ensemble ably carries it, especially Cumberbatch and Colman at the center. Late in the film, Theo makes a dangerous, boundary-crossing choice that rubbed me the wrong way – and then, so does Ivy, in retaliation. Up until that point, their pranks were less harmful. Colman has fun with some AI Deep Fake at Cumberbatch’s expense, and wait’ll you see what he does with his “woht.”

Thinking about this review, even while still watching The Roses, I had a feeling I knew how I was going to land this plane – but then it had one final trick up its sleeve, and it was a grade-booster: the ending. Something happens that immediately alleviates or answers any questions I had, and the choice worked for me. Most of the choices work. You’re not going to get a deep exploration of the human condition, romance, marriage, or life, but The Roses succeeds as a sunny, well-perfomed lark. It kept me entertained, and I never looked at my watch. It’s like that amusement park ride with the individual hanging swings. Once everybody is in theirs, you are raised high up, and go in a clockwise circle for a few minutes. There’s not much when it comes to variety, but you get some fresh air and nice views before you are brought back down.

Grade: B