The Roses

The Roses is a comedy. We are not going to categorize this as a Rom Com because I feel like that sets up specific expectations. It's a comedy about a relationship and that is as close as we are going to get. Olivia Coleman and Benedict Cumberbatch play a married couple and their unexpected chemistry ends up delivering a truly entertaining and enlightening story.

We open on a couples therapy session that seems to be at the end of their relationship. We then back up to the beginning of the relationship and we get to see the process of how we ended up in couples therapy. Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Coleman have incredible chemistry and their energies mesh really well together.

The credit sequence is at the beginning of the movie which very much makes it feel like an old school romantic comedy.

These two are very British and they decided to move to California. And I love that they throw them right into American culture. They join their new friends at a shooting range with a group of people that all claim to “hate” guns yet they all own them…Love it.

I already love how they have portrayed this relationship, there is such obvious tension but they also clearly love each other. When one half of the couple wants to leave the gathering so the other has to make up a ridiculous lie so they can leave. Accurate and incredible.

“Are you stoned?”....”Yeah” ya know I think I love this, it's so realistic and delightful. The dialogue is incredible, it's sharp, it's funny. Parts of this are so me and my husband (the good parts).

So they're in California and this giant storm hits, and like no offense but we don’t have hurricane like storms like this, we just don’t. Wildfires are really the only weather we get. But a wild storm collapses this poor man's building, I would say sufficiently ending his career. At the same exact time his wife gets a big break with her restaurant being reviewed by a high profile food critic.

You know you are in a downward spiral when you are watching youtube remix videos of your tragedy.

So we are seeing one spouse's dreams die while the others start to come true, yeah that would put a strain on any marriage. Even through his heartbreak he is trying his hardest to be a good dad and I love that for him, good parenting.

He is watching his spouse be praised and he is trying so hard to be happy for her and supportive. He really is being wonderful, and so their whole dynamic changes. He is now going to be the stay at home parent, which is a crazy lifestyle switch but he already disagrees with so much of her parenting choices this is certainly going to be interesting.

These kids are now going through a wild lifestyle shift, dads a little more health oriented then mom was. He is very self aware but he is clearly spinning out.

Their opposing parenting styles are causing a rift in their relationship. So this is why you should discuss parenting styles BEFORE you choose to get married and have kids. Also he’s right, she gives them way too much sugar.

She’s making an executive decision for their relationship and taking advantage of him being home, not loving that. He even takes responsibility with his children for being upset about an upsetting situation.

I do love that they fight and they immediately apologize and make up, and then she screws up and they fight again. It is very much a real relationship. But it is the relationship of two people that fell into it and not one of two people that chose it.

Then they do choose it, they choose to go spend some time alone together, away from work and the kids. Then he has an encounter that causes him to spin out a little bit. “In a thoughtful marriage one partner drinks the other's drink while they sleep” I think what's making this work is that these crash outs are completely understandable and we can see him genuinely trying to be a good husband and father but he is definitely still mourning the death of his career. Whereas she is certainly not trying as hard to empathize with him and she’s allowed to go be happy and fulfilled but there is just no understanding whatsoever.

So he’s a much better partner despite these little spin outs and she’s successful but she is a terrible wife. And you can see the resentment building. They are then in a full role reversal, at his first sign of success he buys her a restaurant and now that she has success she is offering him land and money to design and build their dream house.

The conflict continues because now it's been YEARS since the switch and the kids are so much closer to their father then they are to mom because she’s literally never there. Then we go back to the opening therapy scene, the kids are gone and all they have left is each other. There is nothing left to hide behind and at this point in the story these two genuinely seem to hate each other.

In this big argument she realizes that she doesn't even know her children. She hates him because they're gone, off being successful in the way that HE raised them and she wasn’t a part of it and it's her own fault.

And when she finally does apologize, he has headphones in and doesn’t hear her. It's really heartbreaking. Watching the death of a relationship but it's just written so well.

Benedict Cumberbatch has such a beautiful monologue at the end and it's so gut retching and raw. He realizes that life is so short and she is just draining it out of him. And he doesn’t want to live like this anymore.

Even their kids recognize that they are better apart, except that they are tormenting each other through this divorce. They are destroying each other's businesses and otherwise driving each other insane. This rivalry builds and builds until he uses her raspberry allergy against her. Honestly I think it's great writing, it really does a great job of showing that if you have to find reasons to stay in a relationship then you shouldn’t be in said relationship. Their fighting comes to a violent climax and they decide that they actually do need each other. Yeah this is a terrible relationship but they are definitely meant for each other. And once they realize this they definitely both die. Rather poetic.

The way they weave the different timing into the script is done really really well. I think the entire script was funny and witty. The delivery was brilliant, the casting was impeccable and it was a very honest character study of a deeply flawed relationship and it was done really well. It is definitely worth the watch and I give it a solid 8/10.