Disney+ Unearths The Roses

Disney+ is coming up smelling like roses in November.

After distributing an initially lacklustre slate, save for live sport, it’s added two movies: Freakier Friday, as posted here, and now The Roses, which streams from November 20.

The latter is a “re-imagining” of 1988’s The War of the Roses, starring Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch as a seemingly happily-married couple.

But beneath the façade of their supposed ideal life, storm clouds gather as his career nosedives while her ambitions take off, igniting a tinderbox of fierce competition and hidden resentment.

Reads the blurb:

Director Jay Roach brings sharp comedic instincts and a distinctly British edge to this modern portrait of a family in freefall. Balancing biting satire with moments of outrageous humor, he crafts a story of real life gone spectacularly wrong. Critics have taken notice, calling the film “hilarious” and “laugh-out-loud funny.”

It averaged a 67% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where among those who took notice for the wrong reasons was the Wall Street Journal: “These Roses give off a strong odour, but it’s the fragrance of the stuff you put in the ground to make the flowers grow.”

The New York Post complained there wasn’t any chemistry between the stars whereas The Australian hailed the “dazzling script” as “thespian heaven”.