But the film cleverly turns into a reverse rom-com when Theo’s career crashes while Ivy’s restaurant takes off. We watch the Roses fall out of love. Unlike the start of their relationship, the end doesn’t happen overnight. Theo, the beleaguered stay-at-home father, is increasingly resentful. Ivy is building a restaurant empire, taken up with spreadsheets and magazine photo shoots, and with little time for her family. The film comes uncomfortably close to positioning her as a too-ambitious woman neglecting her husband and children for her job, but fortunately never tilts over that line, as it acknowledges how much their careers matter to both Theo and Ivy.
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Throughout, Colman and Cumberbatch’s performances make the dialogue much funnier than it sounds in print. When Ivy asks Hal if he wants a Negroni and the AI answers, “I don’t have wants or needs,” you have to hear the light-handed but loaded way Colman responds, “Marry me.” The film’s surprising weak spots are the lame supporting roles of the Roses’ friends. Andy Samberg plays Theo’s loyal best friend, Barry. He is merely Theo’s foil, citing inertia as the secret of his marriage to his wife, Amy, which lets Theo recognise that he doesn’t want that for himself. But Samberg delivers his lines with just the right understated spin. Barry, a real-estate lawyer, represents his friend in the divorce and voices the film’s most topical theme when he tells Theo, “Divorce is mostly about real estate.”
The Roses
Cast: Olivia Colman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andy Samberg, Kate McKinnon
As Amy, who blatantly and persistently comes on to the uninterested Theo, Kate McKinnon is too Kate McKinnon. Her role as the oddball feels like a toned-down version of her Weird Barbie character, tailored to her style rather than this film. In other weak roles, Jamie Demetriou and Zoë Chao are Rory and Sally, friends who are constantly insulting the Roses. It’s not credible that the Roses would invite this toxic couple to a dinner party, but the characters are there to help the film skewer some cultural differences. The dinner party is a raucous set piece, where the barbs the Roses toss at each other sharpen from affectionate teasing to sincere hatred. At the dinner table, when Rory and Sally try to emulate the dry British wit that has always been Ivy and Theo’s style, they can only come up with witless insults and name-calling. These particular Americans just don’t have the knack. But The Roses itself is a smart, wild, entertaining mix of droll British humour and glossy Hollywood film-making.
★★★★☆
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