{"id":12893,"date":"2025-08-28T21:46:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T01:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12893"},"modified":"2025-10-01T15:39:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T19:39:23","slug":"the-roses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/08\/28\/the-roses\/","title":{"rendered":"The Roses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Roses<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Searchlight\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 105 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language throughout, sexual content, drug content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jay Roach\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tony McNamara\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Theodore Shapiro\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Florian Hoffmeister\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 29, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0Can you believe it\u2019s Labor Day already? Where did the summer go? It\u2019s true what they say. As you get older, the days drag but the months fly by.<\/p>\n

\u00a0This 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\u2019s 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<\/strong> this weekend. It\u2019s not good.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Some of you younger folks might not be aware of this, but it\u2019s 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<\/strong> didn\u2019t need to be made. It\u2019s entirely unnecessary. It brings nothing new to the table except British accents. However, it\u2019s 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\u2019s not funny. I didn\u2019t laugh out loud once. I didn\u2019t even chuckle.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Jay Roach (Meet the Parents), The Roses<\/strong> 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\u2019re mostly happy with a few rough patches. Eventually, resentment builds to the point of imploding the marriage.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Things start to fall apart when Theo\u2019s career goes down the crapper after a building he designed collapses. At the same time, Ivy\u2019s 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\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Theoretically, The Roses<\/strong> 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\u2019 closest friends. McKinnon especially has some good moments as an oversexed, unfiltered type who\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Part of the problem with The Roses<\/strong> is that it doesn\u2019t have the same nasty edge that Danny De Vito brought to the original. That was black comedy done right. I know it\u2019s not easy doing that kind of movie. There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The sad thing is The Roses<\/strong> 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\u2019s 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<\/strong> altogether.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Roses (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Searchlight\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 105 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language throughout, sexual content, drug content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jay Roach\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tony McNamara\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Theodore Shapiro\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Florian Hoffmeister\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 29, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, Andy Samberg, Kate McKinnon, Allison Janney, Belinda Bromilow, Sunita Mani, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Demetriou, Zoe Chao, Hala […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-sequels-remakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-Roses-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C928&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12896,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12893\/revisions\/12896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}