When a remake of The War of the Roses, Danny DeVito’s pitch black 1989 divorce “comedy”—quotes because the film is emotionally and literally violent—was announced last year, I thought why. I mean, besides the fact that you almost can’t get a script greenlit without it stemming from existing IP, why remake The War of the Roses?
Like Kramer vs Kramer, The War of the Roses is a product of a different era of divorce, when it was still shocking to people that a woman would dare ask for her fair share “when she never worked a day in her life”. DeVito’s film, which he directed from Michael J. Leeson’s script, slyly asserts that homemakers are entitled to ask for more after giving up their professional lives to support successful husbands. It’s a VERY dark comedy, a battle of the sexes in which no one wins but the lawyers. And it holds up! Why remake it!
But the trailer for the new adaptation, titled simply The Roses, dropped yesterday and…okay, yeah, I’m in. The Roses is from director Jay Roach and screenwriter Tony McNamara (of The Favourite and The Great fame), and like DeVito’s film, it’s an adaptation of Warren Adler’s novel, The War of the Roses. DeVito’s film sticks close to the source material, but Roach’s film has one big deviation—the man is now the one asking for the house.
In the book and DeVito’s film, the wife, Barbara (played by Kathleen Turner), asks for the family’s lavish home because as a homemaker, she’s the one who turned house into home and decorated it over the course of her marriage, implying the home/family is her profession, in lieu of a “real” career. (It sounds very obvious to us now, but keep in mind people still balk at the idea of spousal support even when women have been out of the workplace for years, if not decades, to raise families, enabling their husbands to chase career heights without worrying about who is picking their kids up from school.)
In the new film, the central couple are renamed Theo and Ivy and they’re played by Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman, respectively, which is great casting. In this version, Theo is laid off from his job as an architect, which is when resentment for his successful chef wife—does this film take place in The Bear Cinematic Universe?—sets in. HE asks for the house in the divorce, because he designed it.
Regardless of flipping the gender of who asks for the family home, The Roses ends up in the same place, with Theo and Ivy literally at each other’s throats, destroying everything around them in their pursuit of destroying each other. To The Roses’ credit, it looks funnier than DeVito’s movie, which is emotionally incredibly bleak. Ivy’s line about disappointing sex with Theo is particularly funny in the cruel way a such a dark relationship comedy should be.
Cumberbatch and Colman are joined by Allison Janney and Andy Samberg, playing their lawyers, and Kate McKinnon stars as, I think, Samberg’s character’s wife. Names for these characters have not been confirmed, but since they’ve already changed the central couple from Oliver and Barbara to Theo and Ivy, I assume everyone else’s name will change, too. Also, shout out to Andy Samberg entering his character actor/DILF phase.
Given the talent involved, particularly Cumberbatch, Oscar-winner Colman, and McNamara, The Roses is an early tip for the 2025 awards season. But it has an unfriendly August release date which makes me think Searchlight isn’t positioning it as a serious contender. It opens on August 29, two days after the Venice Film Festival opens. There’s always a chance it could squeeze in a Venice premiere before it opens, but I doubt it.
The Roses looks like the kind of character-driven, adult-oriented film that is given a late summer release because if it’s not an awards contender, no one knows how to open these movies anymore. Once upon a time, adults showed up for movies like this—DeVito’s film was a huge hit, earning over $412 million in today’s money—but now? LOL who knows. I’m just glad it’s not being dumped on streaming.
