![\"Olivia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TR_02051_v1_2025-08-29-001808_rbvz.jpg\")
Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch are fine but miscast in this unnecessary remake of THE ROSES. Jaap Buitendijk\/Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures<\/p>\n\t\tOlivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch are fine but miscast in this unnecessary remake of THE ROSES. Jaap Buitendijk\/Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures<\/p>\n
Remakes are odious, even when they\u2019re nothing more than harmless television takeoffs on successful feature films, but\u00a0The Roses\u00a0is an especially egregious waste of time and talent because it takes itself so seriously. With the abbreviated title of the popular 1989 smash The War of the Roses\u00a0for starters, it not only tries to both approximate and duplicate a proven hit but foolishly improve it, too.<\/p>\n
THE ROSES \u2605\u2605\u00a0(2\/4 stars)
Directed by: Jay Roach
Written by: Tony McNamara
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, Andy Samberg, Allison Janney, Belinda Bromilow, Sunita Mani, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Demetriou, Zo\u00eb Chao, Kate McKinnon
Running time: 105 mins.<\/p>\n
The original starred Michael Douglas<\/a> and Kathleen Turner<\/a>, two glamorous stars with no superiors in the field of caustic satire, in a black parody on yuppie materialism that also benefited greatly from the witty cynicism of Danny DeVito<\/a>\u2019s direction. Nobody was better at understated derision than Michael Douglas when he concentrated on what he was doing, and Kathleen Turner was a gorgeous cross between Betty Crocker and the Spider Woman as a tour guide through domestic hell. In the new, unnecessary remake, two fine but miscast Brits, Benedict Cumberbatch<\/a> and Olivia Colman<\/a>, grapple with more stoic versions of the material and none of the humor and charisma demanded of the leading roles. Based on Warren Adler<\/a>\u2019s novel, it\u2019s the old familiar story of the man, motivated by the pursuit of career and power, and the woman, who stays home to mind the kids and clean the house.<\/p>\n Moving to America for reasons uexplained, things look good until, after 17 years of marriage and two kids ready for athletic boarding school, the tables turn when the man, a talented architect, loses his job and gets reduced to self-doubt after designing the most beautiful house in Southern California, and it\u2019s the woman who reaps the profits after opening a seafood restaurant\u2014\u201cWe\u2019ve Got Crabs\u201d\u2014that takes off like gangbusters. War is declared, embodying everything from physical violence to sexual sadism, and they spend their lives trying to destroy a marriage that was a hopeless mistake. The wife works her way up to nine restaurants and a James Beard award<\/a>. Her crabs triumph, while the fabulous house he designed becomes an irreconcilable difference. When the anatomy of this disastrous relationship finally ends, the Roses discover it\u2019s not the misery of their awful marriage they destroy, but the greatness of their perfect house. What they learn is nothing, and compromise begins all over again.<\/p>\n Yes, it\u2019s a yawn, but when the Roses eventually leave their battle stations, it\u2019s long after the viewer has given up on both of them already. The two stars have a few moments of failed splendor, but Olivia Colman is better playing neurotic queens in costume epics, and the most hilarious performance in the whole film is by Allison Janney<\/a>, who is especially on target as Mrs. Rose\u2019s savage divorce lawyer. Director Jay Roach<\/a> works so hard trying to squeeze in a few gags that do not come naturally from the overwrought yet tedious script by Tony McNamara<\/a> that almost every line seems painfully over-written. Thus, you get \u201cThe dream you\u2019ve always wanted to be shouldn\u2019t die on the crucifix of family life.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Which is another way of saying \u201cBe yourself.\u201d\u00a0 Trust me when I say the only thing you\u2019ll miss is that remarkable beach house. The movie is under two hours, but it seems much longer.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch are fine but miscast in this unnecessary remake of THE ROSES. Jaap Buitendijk\/Courtesy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[81904,81909,6191,81910,5433,81905,690,21562,81906,88,81913,81907,74437,81915,44415,47954,206,81912,75716,81911,81908,81916,81914],"class_list":["post-129059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-2-star-movies","tag-allison-janney","tag-andy-samberg","tag-belinda-bromilow","tag-benedict-cumberbatch","tag-comedy-movies","tag-culture","tag-danny-devito","tag-drama-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-jamie-demetriou","tag-jay-roach","tag-kate-mckinnon","tag-kathleen-turner","tag-michael-douglas","tag-movie-reviews","tag-movies","tag-ncuti-gatwa","tag-olivia-colman","tag-sunita-mani","tag-tony-mcnamara","tag-warren-adler","tag-zou00eb-chao"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}