"The mayhem is grander and the vibe a bit sweeter in this latest cinematic reimagining of The War of the Roses, novelist Warren Adler's dark, comic tale of divorce. Olivia Colman plays budding restaurateur Ivy Rose, Benedict Cumberbatch her celebrated architect hubby Theo Rose initially a mutually supportive, loving couple. But after a reversal in their work fortunes her restaurant gets raves, his most prominent building collapses (dramatically enough to become an in-movie meme) they're reduced to a bickering, sniping pair of monsters."
"Director Jay Roach, whose previous films include the Austin Powers series and Meet the Fockers, gives the proceedings a rom-com gloss, and the bickering's funny for a while with the leads playing it brightly, as if they'd been handed a freshly unearthed, obscenity-laced script by Noel Coward. But when the going turns dark, the playing stays bright, which compromises what was, in the 1989 Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner incarnation of this story, a ferocious final act."
A Little Prayer treats family dynamics with tenderness. The Roses reimagines The War of the Roses with amplified mayhem and a slightly sweeter tone. Olivia Colman portrays restaurateur Ivy Rose and Benedict Cumberbatch plays architect Theo Rose, a couple whose fortunes reverse and whose bickering escalates into monstrous behavior. Jay Roach applies a rom-com gloss that keeps performances brightly comic even as darker turns demand bite, and some updates, like younger children, blunt the story's consequences. Caught Stealing follows Hank, an East Village bartender in 1990s New York, amid crime-family chaos directed by Darren Aronofsky.
Read at www.npr.org
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]