The Roses (2025) review

Architect Theo Rose (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his wife Ivy (Olivia Colman), a chef, move to Northern California where they raise their children Hattie (Hala Finley) and Roy (Wells Rappaport), Theo builds Ivy a restaurant to show off her culinary skills, but when Theo's design for a maritime museum is demolished by a powerful storm and his career is ruined while Ivy's reputation blossoms, they resent each other: he's jealous of her success and she's bitter that he's become a stay-at-home dad and grown closer to their kids.  As the second adaptation of Warren Adler's 1981 book (the first was directed by Danny DeVito in 1989) it fails miserably as a black comedy, resorting to pitiful foul-mouthed banter (bringing back unpleasant memories of Roach's Dinner for Schmucks) and featuring two miscast leads: both Cumberbatch and Colman are too refined for a script this pedestrian.  The movie gets even worse once it introduces a beached whale (that Theo helps save), food laced with psychedelic mushrooms and Ivy firing a gun at her husband in their expensive new house - meanwhile, Hattie and Roy are off at an athletic school in Miami, behaving more like adults than their parents ... and end up winners of the "war" by becoming wealthy orphans.