The Roses (2025)

Remakes. Reboots. Reinventions. Redundancy. It's the common practice in Hollywood of late, sometimes offering us victorious reimagining of what can be considered cinematic classics while also, more often, falling flat on their UN-imaginative faces in utter defeat and lackluster results. Admittedly, with this in mind, I went into the newest incarnation of "The War of the Roses" with typical trepidation and cautious optimism.

Fortunately, what I was given was a fantastically, though expectedly scathing, adventure in dark humor, satirical excellence, and sometimes straight up, hilarious FUN. I mean, it's brutal, no doubt. There usually wouldn't be, or frankly SHOULDN'T be, any genuine elation to be had when watching the deconstruction of two people's relationship that begins so beautifully, yet ends so unceremoniously.

BUT, with director Jay Roach (the "Austin Powers" and "Meet The Parents" franchises' helmer) behind the wheel, plus the combination of arguably two of Britain's most talented stars yucking it up and causing all sorts of relational chaos on screen, the film adeptly, effectively, and YES, entertainingly, follows couple Theo and Ivy Rose (Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Coleman) and how their love-turns-into-hate-turns-into-love/hate when circumstances good and ill take them in decidedly different directions and mindsets about their union.