RIOTUS

This is a movie for the petty people out there—we see you, and so does The Roses. It’s also a story with a long history of matrimony’s acrimony. The feud started with the book by Warren Adler, The War of the Roses (1981), about a couple who fall out of love and start spiraling. Eventually, they go to war in their own house and destroy everything. Like that one scene from Home Alone, but less cute and more deadly. Rioters, by the end, the fatal fallout has Barbara and Johnathan Rose hanging from a chandelier after going 1v1 in a duel to the death. 

The “War” of 1989

In 1989, we meet Barbara (Kathleen Turner) and Oliver (Michael Douglas) in the first adaptation. Also called The War of the Roses. This Danny DeVito-directed version mostly sticks to the original but uses DeVito’s character, lawyer Gavin D’Amato, as a narrator with a film noir spin. It’s a movie that works better in the late 80s and early 90s than it does now, but it was a hit. It was a sign of the times. The War of the Roses matches the twisted energy of another recent revival, Death Becomes Her. It’s hard to resist a pair of rivals who crash out and lunge for each other’s throats—and both stories excel at comedic bitterness.

Warren Adler’s Expanding Universe

Last week at MPA (the Motion Picture Association), when Jonathan R. Adler talked about managing his father’s prolific catalog and honoring the elder Adler’s legacy, I couldn’t help but think about Knives Out. Hear me out. The sense of humor in Warren Adler’s work is similarly dark but witty, and both depict the demise of a family with trainwreck-fascination. Knives Out starts with the premise of a son striving to give new life to his author father’s work, while in the case of the Adlers it happens for real with “56 novels, over 100 short stories, and several plays.” That much better outcome made it nice to hear Johnathan’s enthusiasm about all the possibilities. For example, up next, the Roses are headed to the West End and then back to Broadway in their stage adaptation. 

The “War” of 2025

Today, in 2025, we’re on the brink of the latest version of this saga of divorce and temporary insanity. Releasing in theaters on August 29, The Roses comes from director Jay Roach, the Adler brothers as producers, and screenwriter Tony McNamara. This time, the feud is between architect Theo Rose (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Ivy (Olivia Coleman), an inventive chef. The fatal attraction immediately turns into insta-love for this chronically honest pair. Theo and Ivy have no filter. None. Their raw thoughts are filled with unconscious wit and acid, making the dialogue in The Roses the equivalent of eating popcorn; it’s so tasty. Ten years later, The Roses have a set of boy-girl twins and a good life. She’s a homemaker, and he’s ready to cut the ribbon on a maritime museum. At this point, they’re loving and supportive. If she eats raspberries, he has the EpiPen ready before the hives and anaphylactic shock takeover.

Likewise, Ivy’s work family is the absolute best. Ncuti Gatwa’s Jeffrey and Sunita Mani’s Jane help her run her off-road restaurant and the eventual empire that grows out of it. Meanwhile, Theo’s friends are more questionable. There’s oddball, gun-toting, and over-sexed couple, Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon as Barry and Amy, and the goofy but jealous fellow architects Zoë Chao and Jamie Demetriou as Sally and Rory. Going for the trifecta (because Sally and Rory don’t count), the most important pair in their lives are their twins Hattie and Roy, played at two ages by Delaney Quinn / Hala Finley and Ollie Robinson / Wells Rappaport. 

Despite their bliss, life suddenly hits The Roses like a typhoon—literally—and in a storm of events that reminds me of A Star is Born, Theo’s career takes a tumble while Ivy is on the rise. It doesn’t help that Ivy and Theo are both hyper-talented and equally ambitious. Thus, contrary to their best intentions, their marriage turns into hell, and it’s hard to tell which one is Satan. Maybe Theo is Beelzebub and Ivy is Belphegor.

Love is a Battlefield and The Roses are in the Trenches

I cannot wait for you to see this movie. While their marriage might be hell, the writing and acting in The Roses is diabolical. And the costuming, the cinematography, and the set design are a perfect fit. From the first moments, the filmmakers show us this story may be based on the novel and the first movie, but it’s in an alternate universe featuring a far smarter and ironically more reasonable version of the killer couple. Roach and McNamara aren’t here to talk about how ugly divorce can be; they’re more interested in dissecting the anatomy of love when two people have grown but forgot to share their sunlight. Ivy and Theo don’t suffer from a lack of love but from the ability to be honest with everyone except themselves and each other. Oh, they also suffer from a spectacular set of insecurities and envy. All those unspoken and hidden parts of themselves cause their marriage to go up in flames like a gloriously spiteful bonfire.

While you’re watching, you can’t stop laughing because it never stops coming at you, and you never know what direction it’ll take. The Roses is a diabolically petty and delightfully demented evisceration of love and divorce that lets the insides pour out. The cast must’ve cackled when they read this script. Coleman and Cumberbatch slip around on the guts of this rose-colored chaos with comedic glee, compassion, and complexity. The chemistry is lit(erary) and the repartee between Coleman and Cumberbatch is like Shakespeare dipped in acid, cleverly composed and utterly vicious.

I’m so ready to watch The Roses again. See it as soon as you can.