Parents' Guide to The Roses

This dark comedy benefits from brilliant stars and an amusing premise, but it eventually devolves into cringe-inducing over-the-top cruelty. Colman and Cumberbatch share great banter and chemistry, even when Ivy and Theo are hurling insults at each other during marriage counseling. For the first half of The Roses, they seem to have one of those enviable marriages that's full of inside jokes and "you know me so well" moments, like when she makes an elaborate, themed dinner for him or he buys her the crab shack to share her joy of cooking. The supporting cast also land their comedic beats, particularly Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon as their couple friends and Allison Janney, who stands out in a small but memorable turn as a cutthroat divorce lawyer. On the other hand, Sunita Mani and Ncuti Gatwa, both gifted comic actors, feel slightly underused as Ivy's restaurant staff and younger confidants.

Eventually, director Jay Roach, working from Tony McNamara's screenplay, escalates the Roses' marital discord from growing miscommunication and time apart to increasingly uncomfortable levels of hateful spite and near-homicidal acts. And, oddly, unlike the 1989 movie (which showed exactly what ultimately happened to the Roses), this version softens the cautionary tale's bleak ending. The movie might have been stronger had it fully committed, rather than leaving the resolution heavily implied instead of shown. Still, despite the movie's flaws, Colman and Cumberbatch make it worth seeing. Longtime friends off-screen, they prove an irresistible pairing on-screen; here's hoping they team up again à la Julia Roberts and George Clooney.