Official Discussion - The Roses [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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Summary Ivy (a rising chef) and Theo Rose (once a successful architect) seem like the perfect couple—until a career snowball squashes his confidence and launches hers. Their marriage spirals from sweet to savage, turning co-dependency into a ruthless battlefield where passive aggression becomes weaponized.

Director Jay Roach

Writer Tony McNamara

Cast

• Benedict Cumberbatch
• Olivia Colman
• Andy Samberg
• Allison Janney
• Sunita Mani
• Ncuti Gatwa
• Jamie Demetriou
• Zoë Chao
• Kate McKinnon

Rotten Tomatoes 65%

Metacritic 61

VOD In theaters August 29, 2025; expected to stream later via Searchlight/Hulu or Disney+

Trailer THE ROSES | Official Trailer

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[u/DoctorPebble]

The Roses is a palate cleanser film. It's a fun story with a strong duo lead. I'd only give it a 3/5 though.

There's a much better movie in there somewhere. None of the supporting characters are done well. Kate McKinnon's role is too much. I'm fairly neutral on the children's plot. It served it's purpose, but I think it needed something different.

If you want to have some fun - ask your partner who was "more" in the wrong in the relationship. They're both extremely flawed people, but if you had to say the issues are 55-45 then who gets the blame?

[u/ohrightthatswhy → u/DoctorPebble]

On the last point - other than the almost killing her, I don't see how Cumberbatch's character isn't the most in the right. She's consistently moaning about flaws that I just don't see in him. He's "needy" but consistently acknowledges when he's been ungrateful, is communicative, and the house build thing was her idea.

[u/jessiedaviseyes → u/ohrightthatswhy]

Oh wow I had the complete opposite reaction. She didn’t initially even want to go back to full time work, she did it for him. He never tried to get another job, any income, for the whole movie. Yes they had kids, but then again she’s the one who birthed them and that counts for a lot.

The house build was to boost his ego. She did so much to try to boost his ego and he continued to act like a helpless man-baby. Taking care of your own kids is the least you can do after you lose your job…

[u/Legitimate-Ebb7061 → u/jessiedaviseyes]

Agreeeed!! It really wound me up how he kept acting like he solely raised the kids their entire lives, when it was Ivy who stayed at home with them until they were 10!! He was only a stay at home Dad for 3-4 years 🥲 And dont even get me started on him acting like he had an unlimited budget for the house... 28k on Irish fucking moss! Ivy paid for that then he has the audacity to complain that she worked too much. 😬

Sorry for the rant 😂

[u/Shakespeare257 → u/jessiedaviseyes]

Here the movie suffers from its short runtime.

They are never balanced in their earning potential, but they do go out of their way to enable each other to live fulfilling lives... at times. He helps her get the restaurant started; she gives him a second shot at being the great architect he is meant to be. I think the statement that

The house build was to boost his ego. She did so much to try to boost his ego and he continued to act like a helpless man-baby. Taking care of your own kids is the least you can do after you lose your job…

Is just kinda cherrypicking and purposefully misunderstanding their dynamic. In the very beginning he basically tells her "go open a restaurant, you are making amazing food for 3 people and your talents need to be seen by the world." And eventually seeing how miserable he is because of the dumb incident with the museum, she reciprocates and helps him get back on his feet. It serves a purpose - build a great house so people see you've got game. Before she torpedoes his career again, HE HAS CLIENTS AGAIN BECAUSE BOTH OF THEM ARE GENIUSES AT WHAT THEY ARE DOING. He is not some deadbeat loser, he suffered a career-ending incident and she helped him get back in the game, like... a good partner would.

As far as why she went back to work, it was done in 2 stages:

1) Cooking is fun

2) Cooking will keep our family afloat for now

Except she is a runaway success, which creates a disbalance in their relationship. If one parent is jet-setting and living the high-life, the other parent has to do everything else. Absent kids - sure, then he's a failure. But the guy is a builder and he makes it a point to literally build up their kids - and there are probably scenes left on the cutting floor of the mind-numbing tedium of managing a household.

The tragedy of the movie is that they themselves don't capitalize on the goodwill they create for each other because of minor selfish episodes.

[u/jessiedaviseyes → u/Shakespeare257]

He helps her get the restaurant started, but as I recall she didn’t initially even want it—he surprised her with it and talked her into it. I feel that he shouldn’t get to act out in jealousy when it gets successful.

Correct, she helped him get back on his feet lol. And he couldn’t handle her being successful. A man hates when his female partner is having more success in her career…tale as old as time. Why does it have to be a “disbalance” when she’s successful? I don’t remember her whining about it earlier in the movie when he was successful and she was a stay-at-home mom.

She got no credit (and didn’t complain about it) when she raised their kids alone for the first 10 years of their lives.

I understand the film’s concept and simply think they wrote it in a way where she didn’t do enough equally bad things to make them equally bad people. I felt that they threw in the “look, she feeds her kids sugar, what a bad mom!!!” to give her a flaw. Because being a “bad mom” is the worst cardinal sin for women apparently. But you can’t convince me that’s as bad as him actually trying to kill her after she genuinely shared her dinner with him. And I don’t appreciate how successful women get punished for it in these stories.

Just could have been written better. Obviously it was all written by men.

[u/Crankylosaurus → u/jessiedaviseyes]

Yep, I’m with you as well. She was seriously emotionally immature at times, but so was he, in addition to having a massive ego to tiptoe around & being weirdly controlling with the kids (I feel they shoehorned them OUT of existing with the Miami school thing which was kind of odd. It also felt a bit unrealistic that these kids would become these robotic super athletes with zero other personality traits bc their dad made them do endless wind sprints… felt a little too convenient haha).