Jay Roach’s latest film “The Roses” is too mild and mellow for becoming truly mean and vicious enough to delve into the dark aspects of its story and characters. As unwisely trying to make the two main characters at the center of the story look more sympathetic and likable for us, the movie often becomes less sharp and thorny than it really needs to be, and its middling result is all the more disappointing, considering a bunch of genuinely talented performers gathered here in this film.

As many of you know, the movie is a remake of Danny DeVito’s 1989 black comedy film “The War of the Roses”, which is based on the novel of the same name by Warren Adler. In that movie, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner are darkly hilarious as a married couple going way over the top during their utterly hostile and destructive divorce war, and it is still quite funny to observe how DeVito’s film firmly and admirably sticks to the vicious and unpleasant aspects of its story and characters along with its two fearless lead performers.

In case of “The Roses”, it has Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman. Sure, these two immensely talented British performers can be as funny and vicious as Douglas and Turner in the 1989 film, but, alas, their undeniable comic talents are rather under-utilized here as often being prevented from being truly mean and funny. While their talents do shine a bit more during the third act where the situation becomes darker with more viciousness, that is too late for us, and the movie does not support them well even when it finally arrives at the ending along with them.

The movie opens with their characters, Theo and Ivy Rose, having a private meeting with their marriage counselor. As they interact more with their marriage counselor, it becomes quite apparent that they do have serious relationship issues between them, but they cannot believe that, as their marriage counselor points out, they are not actually capable of solving these problems.

And then they look back at how things felt all right between them when they came across each other in London 13 years ago. While Theo was a promising architecture, Ivy was a talented chef with a lot of potential (This may remind you of Colman’s recent Emmy-nominated guest appearance in American TV series “The Bear”, by the way), and they instantly clicked with each other right from their accidental encounter at a restaurant where Ivy worked. Not long after their first passionate lovemaking which will not be approved by any sensible health inspector out there, they decided to move to California in US, and Ivy devoted herself to domestic matters including raising their two children during next 10 years, while Theo focused more on his work and career.

When his latest building, a big and spectacular naval history museum which is going to be one of the biggest achievements in his career, is finished, Theo decides to buy an abandoned local restaurant house for showing more appreciation to Ivy, who is certainly delighted as finally getting a chance to show off her culinary skills outside their house. Although her modest restaurant business turns out to be far less successful than expected, she is still excited about finally restarting her professional career, and Theo is certainly happy for that.

However, there soon comes an unexpected change of fortune for Theo and Ivy. Their area is suddenly struck by a disastrous storm, which thoroughly destroys that naval history museum to the horror of Theo and many others who happen to be there with him. Meanwhile, this storm incidentally brings much more customers to Ivy’s restaurant at the same time, and, what do you know, one of these customers turns out to be a very influential food critic, who subsequently wrote an enthusiastic review on Ivy’s restaurant.

As his career tumbles toward the bottom, Theo has no choice but to focus on taking care of the domestic matters while Ivy becomes a lot busier and more successful than before. As time goes by, he cannot help but become petty and sulky about how things have changed in their relationship, and his wife also becomes more aware of the growing strain and estrangement between them.

The screenplay by Tony McNamara, who were previously Oscar-nominated for Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite” (2018) and “Poor Things” (2023), has some fun with how its two main characters clash with each other more and more along the story, but it unfortunately does not pull all the stops at all. We are occasionally amused by the increasingly bitter and vicious interactions between Theo and Ivy during their following divorce battle, but the movie often seems to hesitate to push them further into more nastiness, even though both Cumberbatch and Colman look like being quite ready for that from the very beginning.

Furthermore, the movie also fails in bringing more life and personality to those numerous supporting characters around Theo and Ivy. For example, their two kids are more or less than mere plot elements to come and then go, and the same thing can be said about a couple played by Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon, both of whom can be quite funny just like Cumberbatch and Colman but are simply required to look just silly and absurd on the whole. The movie also criminally under-utilizes several other notable performers including Sunita Mani, Zoë Chao, Jamie Demetriou, and Ncuti Gatwa, though Allison Janney manages to steal the show during her brief appearance later in the film.

In conclusion, “The Roses” is just mildly amusing without feeling really biting at all, and my mind kept going back to those many darkly funny moments in the 1989 film, which does not lose any of its dark and vicious sense of humor even at present. While I enjoyed “The Roses” to some degree mainly thanks to the game efforts from Cumberbatch and Colman, they can do a lot better with much sharper and meaner materials in my inconsequential opinion, so I recommend you to stick to the 1989 film instead.