Which brings me to my next point—the biggest issue with the film is that it struggles to make the conflict between Cumberbatch and Colman’s characters equivalent. Call me biased, but Theo was completely insufferable and, quite frankly, pretty unsympathetic when it came to his issues with Ivy. Yes, Ivy lets herself be overcome by the success she was seeing in her business, but I never thought she did enough to warrant Theo’s scorn. After all, she was the one who stepped up to the plate to make money while her husband didn’t have a job… all after a decade of sacrificing her own career to be at home with the kids. And because of that, Theo’s problems read more as jealous resentment than anything that I could actually feel sorry for. Maybe others will see it differently, but I think there needed to be a little bit more care taken to ensure both had equal issues in order to make this combative dynamic work.
There are some other obvious problems with the script. The most egregious of these issues is how the film jumps the metaphorical shark at the end, going so far off the rails it was hard to imagine how we would get to a place of resolution by the end. And while many of the jabs between the characters are funny, the script is written in a way that makes you abundantly aware that you are watching a movie. I kept thinking to myself, people don’t actually talk like this in real life. Lastly, it was pretty laughable that so much of the film hinged around the argument of Ivy versus Theo over who would stay home with the kids. All families are different, but the kids in question seemed more than mature enough to succeed without a parent staying home. And at some point, with Ivy’s success, was there never a question about hiring a nanny?
I found “The Roses” fun enough, especially thanks to Colman; I would love to see her in more comedies like this, as it proves she can light up the screen in any genre. But it’s certainly not a film you need to rush out to theaters to see. It didn’t add or explore anything new to make a remake worth it. But still, based on the highlights of hilarious banter, I would suggest giving it a watch when it’s inevitably added to Disney+ in a few months.
My Review: C+
LAUREN BRADSHAW grew up in Courtland, graduated from Southampton Academy and double-majored in foreign affairs and history at the University of Virginia. She lives in the Washington, D.C., area and can be reached at flickchickdc@gmail.com.
