The Roses                           4 stars

It has been 36 years since we saw Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in that classic comedy The War of the Roses when the married Roses viciously attacked each other with verbal insults and worse as their marriage descended into mayhem. So naturally it was due for an update according to writer Tony McNamara (Poor Things, The Favourite) and director Jay Roach (Bombshell and three rounds of Austin Powers). This time around it is Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman taking on the roles of Theo and Ivy Rose, the married British couple in a decaying marriage that they cannot escape from. Early on we get a taste of what we’re in for when the two of them are in a session with a marriage counselor and the two of them are asked to list ten things they like about each other. Theo says of Ivy, “I’d rather live with her than a wolf.” Ivy’s compliment to Theo is “He has arms.” after she has just seen a documentary about a man living without arms. It gets worse from there with some imaginative use of some swear words. Then we cut to the time they first met at a restaurant where Ivy was working and the two of them end up in a walk-in freezer having sex. From there we flash forward several years and see that they have two children and have moved to northern California where Theo is a successful architect and has designed a new maritime museum. Ivy does dinners for small gatherings, but dreams of opening a restaurant. Big changes come when she succeeds in starting a wildly popular restaurant and becomes famous, while Theo loses his job after he is blamed for the destruction of the museum in a storm. That’s when things start to go badly between them with Theo seemingly resenting Ivy’s success while he has become a stay-at-home Dad. The verbal jabs between them get ever more creative and vicious while their circle of friends become very uncomfortable with the language. The friends include married couple Barry (SNL’s Andy Samberg) and Amy (SNL’s Kate McKinnon) making for a very amusing duo. Also among the cast are Ncuti Gatwa of Doctor Who and Sunita Mani (Death of a Unicorn). Alison Janney completely takes over one scene as Ivy’s attorney when Theo and Ivy take their disagreements to the highest level. The casting of Cumberbatch and Colman was masterful, as they make you believe in their love/hate relationship throughout the movie. Credit must be given to screenwriter Tony McNamara for coming up with so many insults that are almost poetic. The Roses is definitely a dark comedy, though I will leave it up to you to decide if it is as dark as the original The War of the Roses.