The Roses (2025) Searchlight/Comedy RT: 105 minutes Rated R (language throughout, sexual content, drug content) Director: Jay Roach Screenplay: Tony McNamara Music: Theodore Shapiro Cinematography: Florian Hoffmeister Release date: August 29, 2025 (US) Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, Andy Samberg, Kate McKinnon, Allison Janney, Belinda Bromilow, Sunita Mani, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Demetriou, Zoe Chao, Hala Finley, Wells Rappaport, Delaney Quinn, Ollie Robinson, Akie Kotabe.
Rating: **
Can you believe it’s Labor Day already? Where did the summer go? It’s true what they say. As you get older, the days drag but the months fly by.
This weekend, most people will be getting that one last trip to the shore in before the cooler weather sets in. A privileged few, like me, will be wading through the last wave of summer movies. It’s typically a bleak time for movie geeks. This is usually when the studios dump the last of their junk in preparation for more prestigious fall-weather fare. It makes perfect sense that Searchlight opted to release The Roses this weekend. It’s not good.
Some of you younger folks might not be aware of this, but it’s a remake of the 1989 black comedy The War of the Roses starring the power trio of Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. Like most remakes, The Roses didn’t need to be made. It’s entirely unnecessary. It brings nothing new to the table except British accents. However, it’s not altogether bad. It has some witty dialogue and the two leads have good chemistry. Their repartee is well written. The rest of the movie is a bunch of nothing. To be blunt, it’s not funny. I didn’t laugh out loud once. I didn’t even chuckle.
Directed by Jay Roach (Meet the Parents), The Roses is a love-hate story about a married couple who come to resent each other over the years. It starts out nice with successful architect Theo Rose (Cumberbatch, Doctor Strange) meeting his future wife Ivy (Colman, The Favourite) at the restaurant where she works as a chef. In quick fashion, they fall instantly in love, get married and move to the States where they raise two children. They’re mostly happy with a few rough patches. Eventually, resentment builds to the point of imploding the marriage.
Things start to fall apart when Theo’s career goes down the crapper after a building he designed collapses. At the same time, Ivy’s career as a restaurateur skyrockets when she gets a glowing review from a food critic. He stays home to take care of the kids while she builds an empire, opening more locations and becoming a celebrity. He feels neglected and unappreciated; she feels like he’s too needy. She gives him the money to build his dream house, but the day comes when they finally speak the D-word (divorce). The main point of contention; who gets the house?
Theoretically, The Roses should be funny. The barbed banter is amusing, especially with the British accents. It has a solid supporting cast that includes SNL alumni Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon as the Roses’ closest friends. McKinnon especially has some good moments as an oversexed, unfiltered type who’s not subtle about her attraction to Theo. Allison Janney (I, Tonya) shows up for one scene as a ruthless divorce lawyer. The climax has the Roses going head-to-head with each other in the beautiful house that he built and she paid for. All of this should be funny, but it falls disappointingly flat.
Part of the problem with The Roses is that it doesn’t have the same nasty edge that Danny De Vito brought to the original. That was black comedy done right. I know it’s not easy doing that kind of movie. There’s a fine line between sharp-edged and mean-spirited. It feels like Roach is pulling his punches to make his film more palatable for mass consumption. He plays it a little too safe. It results in a comedy that barely wounds let alone cuts.
The sad thing is The Roses could have worked. Writer Tony McNamara (Poor Things) comes up with amusing things for the characters to say. Cumberbatch and Colman have the right chemistry. The movie just never hits the mark. It’s simply not funny. The end scene, before it cuts to the end credits, is one of those frustrating open-ended deals. I sat through the credits hoping for closure, but it never came. I felt empty as I left the theater. My advice is to see the original, either again or for the first time, and skip the thornless The Roses altogether.
