Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch are almost too good in The Roses. By way of their innate dramatic talent, they stretch something that wants to be a farce into more serious territory (certainly more serious, if memory serves, than 1989’s The War of the Roses, with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas, on which this is based). Colman and Cumberbatch play the titular couple, a once-devoted pair driven bitterly apart by career fluctuations, incompatible parenting styles, their own individual neuroses, and the inherent uncertainty that comes with middle age. Director Jay Roach (Meet the Parents) and a supporting cast that includes Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon amp up the zaniness, to occasionally amusing effect. Colman and Cumberbatch easily keep up—they’re comic talents too—yet the best parts of The Roses involve the two of them alone together, either happily or in detest, leaving dazzling trails of repartee as they zip along.
(9/5/2025)
