The Roses Is A Cautionary Tale About Fragile Male Egos And Gender Expectations

Spoilers ahead. Comedy goes hand-in-hand with conflict, and there's something about a dysfunctional family comedy that will never get old. From Little Miss Sunshine to Knives Out, seeing conflict within intimate relationships can make for the most outrageous and charming scenes. The Roses, starring Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch, is the newest example of this genre, but it does something interesting: the conflict comes from flipping traditional gender roles on their heads. Helmed by comedy powerhouses like Aussie writer Tony McNamara (Poor Things, The Favourite) and director Jay Roach (Meet The Parents, Austin Powers), and with an ensemble cast including Kate McKinnon, Ncuti Gatwa, Zoe Chao, Andy Samberg, Sunita Mani, Allison Janney and Jamie Demetriou, it's nothing short of brilliant.

Loosely based on Warren Adler's 1981 novel The War of the Roses, the core of the conflict begins when Theo (Cumberbatch) loses his job as an architect, and his wife Ivy (Colman) steps up to become the breadwinner. As Ivy's restaurant career takes off in spectacular fashion, the couple begin to resent each other. While Theo is jealous of Ivy's professional success, she feels left out of their children's lives. The conflict builds like a pressure cooker, before the glorious final act explodes (in more ways than one). It's a satirical look at how the fragile male ego can be weaponised, with Theo constantly feeling insecure about his wife's success. In the same way, Ivy doesn't get off scot-free. With the message being drummed into modern women that you can have it all — a successful career, kids, marriage — she finds she's unable to give 100% of herself to every facet of her life. Kate McKinnon tells Refinery29 Australia that even though Theo and Ivy's story is fraught with conflict, there's a fine line between love and hate. "It's a tale about two people who really got a kick out of each other, and could still if they could just find their way back to each other, and ignore what their expectations were for their life. Some of which were gendered, some of which were not gendered," McKinnon says carefully. "I believe in this couple, even though things are not going well for them at present."

Tony McNamara's writing is whip-smart, and nothing demonstrates his ability to create chaos better than the awkward dinner party scene, when Theo and Ivy's relationship crumbles in front of all of their friends. The couple throw barbs back and forth before Sally (Chao) attempts to join in on the fun. "Cry like you did when our dog died," she tells her husband Rory (Demetriou), to absolute silence. Zoe Chao tells R29 she knew the script was special after reading it, and jokingly said she would have paid to be in the production. "Sometimes scripts are really hard to read and they take more than one go... this was not an example of that. It just flew by. And I could tell while reading it that I was just like on the edge of my seat," she says. "And it's just fun to play a reprehensible person."

For Ncuti Gatwa, Kate McKinnon and Zoe Chao, filming this scene was a "highlight" of their artistic lives. "It was absolutely incredible to sit around and watch everyone be nothing less than brilliant," Gatwa says. "Just look at these titans of their craft, sharpening their tools." Chao adds her face "hurt" from smiling and laughing throughout filming, but McKinnon sums it up best: "I said to myself, this is why. This is why you do it... this is why you do what you do, [and] try so hard. It's for days like this; it was glorious."

While you could easily look at the film at a surface level and decide that it's warning people what could happen if you deviate from traditional gender roles, dig a little deeper, and you'll see it's a critique of capitalism's rot in society. With both partners expected to chase big career dreams, and much of our worth intertwined with what we do for a job, it is no surprise that this push-and-pull dynamic between family, career, love, and the cost of living can cause immense conflict and decay in a relationship. In the film, Ivy and Theo try to repair their marriage by building Theo's dream house, but it's just a sticking plaster on a broken leg. Much like couples who have a baby to try to 'fix' their problems, it only makes the resentment grow.

In a world where we're constantly trying to figure out our purpose and find fulfilment in our lives, The Roses is a stark reminder that career and money aren't what make a person. Unless you want to end up like Ivy and Theo, that is.