The Roses: Laughing and Screaming at The Roses’ thorns
In the late 90s and early 2000s, if you were zapping through your TV and happened to land on a Jay Roach film, you were almost guaranteed a laugh (or at least a giggle – if you were in a bad day): Bond-style parodies starring Mike Myers (in the Austin Powers series – 1997, 1999 and 2002), or fish-out-of-water comedies (in Meet the Parents, 2000; Meet the Fockers, 2004, Dinner for Schmucks, 2010) were a Roach trademark. During the 2010s, however, if you landed on one of his films after scrolling infinitely on your favourite streaming platform, you would find a director with different sensibilities and an accentuated political vein (The Campaign, 2012; Trumbo, 2015; Bombshell, 2019). Now, in 2025, if you go to The Dukes, you can see a yet-again different Roach, with his bleak feel-bad comedy The Roses.
Inspired by the film (and book), The War of the Roses (1989), Roach goes far beyond a simple remake. Ivy (Olivia Coleman) and Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch) are high-achieving professionals with big egos, whose marriage turns into toxic hate when their roles within the relationship are forced to change. Whilst Ivy’s career as a chef takes off, Theo’s career as an architect starts to (literally) crumble, leaving him to take care of their children as a stay-at-home dad. Tony McNamarra (Poor Things) takes Warren Adler’s novel and Danny DeVito’s film and leaves only the bare bones, writing a new narrative with new relationship dynamics, complex characters and great lines (“When we were younger, I knew what she was going to say before she said it. Now I don’t know what she’s said after she’s said it.”).
Yet, it is the two black-belt actors who steal the show with their British sarcasm and a great on-screen portrayal of anger, pettiness, and jealousy, but also of great vulnerability. Through this cynical yet unmissable portrayal of marriage, Jay Roach brings laughs to the audience once again; however, they are now also accompanied by tension, occasional tears, and internal screams of rage. After all, even the most beautiful Roses must have their thorns.
Written by João Eduardo Lima Belchior
See this reimagining of the 1989 classic film The War of the Roses from 5th to 14th September.
