Jay Roach’s “The Roses” (2025) is a satire upending the institution of marriage with wit, humour, and endless cheekiness. However, most of the repartee is well-fired by Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman, both serving up the tartest replies in excellent, cutting form. They keep the energy going, even while Tony McNamara’s script rushes too much and fills out too much. They rise above the material as it goes in circles and expands what they can bring to the table. It’s a shame because these are terrific actors perfectly ping-ponging a situation’s clashing expectations.
While Colman has the comic energy, Cumberbatch impresses equally. The two form a rip-roaring team, and they get by spectacularly well, even as the script doesn’t meet their capabilities. Perhaps they too can sense the shortcomings and turn themselves up even more cheerily and drily, so that the script’s playfulness can be sustained long after the fun and frolic ends. It’s up to them to keep it going, infusing warmth and bite. Films like these demand a pair impeccably keyed into the particular snappy spirit. The actors spruce it up undeniably.
The Roses (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
However, the smartness here is in limited supply. The wicked humour that occasionally explodes isn’t held throughout, leading to many disappointing scenarios. Often, when things go to the very brink, the film tends to diffuse instead of letting it pop. This becomes a distracting habit, cutting down on the impish impulses. It becomes more sobering instead of leaning into the chaos and full-blown hilarity.
Together, the embittered couple in the film shares exasperation that rings mutual. They get to a point where neither can stand the other, yet choose to stick around, fearing the unseen, the unknown in one’s absence. There comes an abscess when the couple veer close to extirpating each other, yet hold on buoyed by faith that they can make it work. Much of it is also dipped in their own delusion. Ivy and Theo try to avert as much as they can from the deepening crisis in their marriage, pivoting their energies instead to being a couple dedicated to raising their children.
How does the couple’s initial arrangement fall apart?
When the film opens, we’re in the midst of a bitter couple therapy session with the leads. Then, the film loops back in time to situate and establish the relationship and how it got where it is today. Theo (Cumberbatch) easily sways Ivy (Colman) into a relationship. He joins her as she moves to California. There’s a lot of impulsiveness that catches her fancy. She leaves her modest job as a small-time chef, but he lets her take over a space in California where she is in charge of a restaurant. Barely any people show up. The restaurant stays unfrequented even as she comes every day to serve the few passing by. Meanwhile, Theo is at work on a staggering shipping model.
Things seem to be going just as fine, but they aren’t meant to last. A squall hits California. Theo’s project takes the hit. Against his confidence that it’ll weather the storm, no such thing happens. Instead, the entire thing collapses spectacularly, and the whole incident, replete with his shocked exclamations, gets filmed by enthusiastic people on the spot. His misery is turned into grotesque consumption for online communities. Even he himself cannot stop watching the countless versions the video spawns. Expectedly, he gets a bad name in the architecture community. He’s blocklisted, and the client offers dry up.
Also Read: The Roses (2025) Movie Review: An Uneven Yet Frequently Hilarious Dramedy Of Self-Serious Marital Woes
How does the couple’s relegation of duty shift?
For Ivy, the night turns everything around in a positive light. Traffic is redirected, and there’s suddenly a lot of bustle milling into the place. A food critic turns up. The next morning, there’s a glowing review which sets the reputation off to a dizzying headway. It kicks off the stage for an euphoric reception. The restaurant became a raging success.
Suddenly, there’s a massive upsurge in customers swamping the restaurant. It’s on Ivy’s suggestion that she takes over the responsibility of finances, and he will be the one looking after the kids, their schedules, and daily needs. She immerses herself in the restaurant, drifting away from the kids. Her career skyrockets magnificently, while he sinks deeper into torpor, bitterness, and envy over her success. His professional front languishes while he devotes everything to raising the kids on a tight, stentorian diet regimen. He makes them super-disciplined, the exact opposite of her giving free rein to their childish indulgences.
She can barely recognise her own kids, but the thing is, she keeps getting pulled down by her selfish needs. Ivy gets too consumed by her career obsession and ambition, putting her kids’ and husband’s interests at stake. She becomes an absent parent. He does the parenting, subsumed increasingly in his spitefulness. Both see how bitter they are turning. She suggests they fly out to LA, away from their kids’ demands. However, it quickly goes south when she returns drunk to the hotel, unmindful of their planned dinner. Their sparring aggravates further when their kids go off to Miami on scholarships.
She pushes him to build a fancy house for them by the sea, while she expands a chain of restaurants. He does finish a stunning house, shooting way over the budget, which provokes her. What pushes the boat is a housewarming dinner that goes sour right in front of guests and friends. The couple doesn’t hold back at any count, going at each other. An exhausted Ivy ends the night of pretence and walking on eggshells by orchestrating mayhem. Ultimately, they end up headed for divorce settlements.
The Roses (2025) Movie Ending Explained:
Are Ivy and Theo alive?
The final section of the film is wholly devoted to the squabble over who gets the house. He wants it as the sole mark of his artistry. That’s the only thing he seeks. But she won’t budge. She has spent way too much on it to let go of it. What follows in quick succession is both launching attacks on one another. They are unsparing with each other. He hacks into her digital calendar, cancels a spate of bookings. He also gets a dish spiked, which leads to the restaurant being closed owing to health concerns. She makes a deepfake where he professes he did the shipping disaster of his own volition.
The final act circles a scuffle where he tries to force her into signing the deed and giving him the house. He spikes her cake with raspberries, which she’s allergic to. She cedes, but he discovers she’s bungled it cleverly. The spite escalates as she goes charging at him with a gun. In his defence, he messes up the place, including smashing the stove. Finally, they relent. They realise how terribly they still love each other. They can’t dream of a life apart and have been resisting it. However, as they reconcile and make out, the film closes with the gas hissing. An explosion is incipient. The film fades to white with ambiguity over whether the couple is still alive or killed in the explosion. Either interpretation is welcome.
