The Roses
Directed by: Jay Roach
Written by: Tony McNamara
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, Kate McKinnon
Release Date: August 29, 2025
The Roses (2025), starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman, aims for sharp satire but stumbles over lazy writing and implausible storytelling. Here’s why Jay Roach’s latest comedy fails to bloom.
A Comedy Built on a Flimsy Foundation
The Roses asks audiences to accept a setup that collapses under the slightest scrutiny. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Theo Rose, a world-class architect whose career is destroyed when a storm brings down one of his signature projects: a sailing museum topped with a massive wooden sail that crashes through the structure.
It’s a striking image, sure—but the logic doesn’t hold. Are we really to believe that a wildly successful architect wouldn’t account for basic weather conditions? Add to that the fact that architects design, while engineers and builders execute, and the idea of Theo being solely blamed for this disaster feels like screenwriting corner-cutting.
⸻
Overnight Success, Overnight Failure
If Theo’s implausible fall from grace wasn’t enough, his wife Ivy (Olivia Colman) experiences an equally improbable rise. Her failing seafood restaurant, cheekily named We’ve Got Crabs, becomes an impromptu storm shelter. By sheer coincidence, one of the stranded diners is the world’s most influential food critic. Ivy’s cooking earns her a glowing review, and overnight she’s a culinary star while Theo is a professional pariah.
It’s an amusing contrast, but the lack of plausibility makes it hard to buy. Restaurants on the brink of closure don’t stock enough ingredients to feed a packed house during a storm. These details may seem minor, but they highlight the script’s laziness—problems that could have been fixed with minimal effort.
⸻
Kate McKinnon’s Wasted Talent
One of the strangest missteps is Kate McKinnon’s role. While McKinnon is undeniably talented, her brief, out-of-nowhere appearances feel like filler rather than genuine comedy. In one particularly awkward third-act scene, she pops in, delivers an offbeat line, and vanishes, clearly inserted because director Jay Roach felt the film needed a laugh break.
⸻
Chemistry That Can’t Save the Script
Despite the weak script, Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman are the movie’s saving grace. Their sharp banter, biting insults, and electric chemistry add genuine spark, especially in their flirtatious meet-cute. For a brief moment, it feels like The Roses might deliver a dark, screwball energy akin to The War of the Roses (1989). Unfortunately, those flashes of brilliance fade fast, leaving a comedy that feels forced and unfocused.
Why is Andy Samberg in this movie? He's filling the role played by Danny Devito in the 1989 version of this story, The War of the Roses, but where Devito felt essential to that film Samberg is awkwardy shoehorned into The Roses. He's supposed to be Benedict Cumberbatch's closest friend but the two have zero chemistry. I do like Andy Samberg but he is dreadfully miscast as a modern day yuppie lawyer. He's also given nothing to work with by a desperately overstuffed and still lazy screenplay.
Allison Janney, on the other hand, brings it in a cameo as Ivy's divorce lawyer. Where the rest of The Roses flounders, unwilling to fully commit to the nasty tone of the 1989 movue, Janney plays her part as if she should have been cast in place of Olivia Colman. Janney's energy is pure mercenary comic savagery and I loved it. It's about the only thing I love about this otherwise desperately mediocre and inept film.
⸻
Final Verdict
The Roses is proof that star power and witty dialogue aren’t enough to save a film with a flimsy premise and lazy writing. While Cumberbatch and Colman give it their all, Jay Roach’s direction leans too heavily on contrivances and random gags, resulting in a movie that feels half-baked. Fans of the stars might find a few laughs, but most audiences will leave disappointed.
