Jay Roach directs this satirical black comedy adaptation of the 1981 novel The War of The Roses and of its 1989 film, in which a couple go from sweethearts to worst enemies, battling their differences out in their magnificent house, the asset they both desperately want. Roach has captured British humour well as an American – though this is perhaps not the greatest of feats when the two leads are Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch – but there is something greatly amiss here, both in the apparent pitting of British vs American, and in the very nature of the film as a comedy considering the topic.
Colman and Cumberbatch are Ivy and Theo, who, having met in London, make the bold move to California for bigger, better things. Ten years later, Theo is a successful architect, and Ivy is happy cooking exquisite meals for him and their two children. Eager for her to make a name for herself, Theo buys her a restaurant. Despite the lack of footfall at “We’ve Got Crabs”, everything is picture perfect – that is, until a freak storm destroys Theo’s latest project, a naval history museum, at its opening, just as hundreds of travellers caught out by the weather find refuge in Ivy’s restaurant, making her a celebrity overnight. From here, things begin to turn sour – while Theo struggles with unemployment and turns their children into solder-like athletes as a form of pastime, Ivy is living the dream, working with some of the biggest chefs in the world and quickly expanding the restaurant into a chain across the country. Naturally, jealous and resentful tensions rise – and so the battle begins.
Somewhere along the road, The Roses falters on pacing, dilly dallying between love and hate, and cramming too much of the latter into the final ten minutes, so much so that the escalation of their war feels too slow, then too rushed. It finds its strength instead in its colourful palette and design (the house Theo builds that is to be the subject of their downfall is gorgeous) and fantastic ensemble cast, starting with Colman and Cumberbatch, who spend ninety percent of the film creatively insulting each other. It’s a witty script to say the least (though I wouldn’t be surprised if much of it had been improvised), filled with adventurous plays on words and comical situations – Cumberbatch watching a remixed video of himself yelling at a crowd that his building “won’t fall” (it does) will never not be funny, while Colman’s ability to say the most atrocious things with a hint of a smirk is positively magic (at this point, The Roses feels like a prequel to Fleabag’s The Godmother). Nevertheless, Tony McNamara’s script feels too overworked at times, as though it is banking on them as “dry witty English people”. This is highlighted by their juxtaposition with their American friends, couples Barry (Andy Samberg) and Amy (Kate McKinnon), and Sally (Zoë Chao) and Rory (Jamie Demetriou) who throughout do not seem to understand whether Ivy and Theo are just prodding fun or genuinely hate each other. It seems like an ode to British humour, and yet it goes too far, somehow mocking both – the British for being overly cruel, and the American for being too dull, too unintelligent. As such, no one comes out on top – halfway through, Colman and Cumberbatch’s incessant bickering becomes almost pretentious, while Samberg and McKinnon feel like missed opportunities, reduced to suicide jokes for one and horny gags for the other. Chao and Demetriou (a strange casting considering he is British) feel like write-offs, though Ncuti Gatwa and Sunita Mani are excellent as Ivy’s manager and sous-chef at the restaurant.
All in all, one wonders whether the Roses are a couple for the comedy genre – Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner did an excellent job as Oliver and Barbara in Danny Devito’s 1989 version, astutely mixing the dramatic with rare moments of cruelty that were so awful they became funny. Watching Colman and Cumberbatch tear each other apart in the end just feels sad – and there is very little humour can do to make up for it.
