The Roses review – Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman’s flawed comedy

3 / 5 stars The Roses

The Roses review. Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman star in a hilarious, but flawed comedy that soon turns jarringly absurd and nasty.

Back in 1989, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner starred in the film adaptation of Warren Adler’s book The War of the Roses, about a well-off couple whose happy marriage descends into chaos and a bitter divorce battle.

Now, Austin Powers and Bombshell director Jay Roach has remade the black comedy with Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman , as expat Brits living in Northern California. Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT

The Roses begins with familiar, cosy rom-com tropes of the successful couple (Theo, the architect, and Ivy, the restaurateur) and all their Richard Curtis middle-class niceties and eccentric fri