Why The Roses Wields Food As A Weapon Explained By Director

The Roses is now available on Digital platforms, so audiences are free to experience Ivy (Olivia Colman) and Theo Rose’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) combative love story from the comfort of their own homes. A twist on 1989’s The War of the Roses, a classic adaptation of Warren Adler’s novel, the new film envisions the couple at its center as equally driven by their career ambitions – albeit not quite equal in their pursuit of success.

After a harsh professional embarrassment, Theo takes a break from architecture to raise the kids while Ivy’s small restaurant sees a massive increase in customers and acclaim. From there, writer Tony McNamara (Poor Things) and director Jay Roach (Meet The Parents) flip the usual relationship dynamic on its head as the seemingly perfect couple veer ever closer to the edge of their own destruction.

Searchlight Pictures celebrated The Roses in peak culinary style at The Gourmandise School in Santa Monica, where ScreenRant and other members of the press learned to cook bouillabaisse like Ivy would. Throughout the event, Roach answered reporters’ questions about the film and was especially generous in his praise of star Olivia Colman, whom he affectionately referred to as a “foodie.” He also recreated her already infamous food fight scene by digging into a replica of the film’s cake after sitting down to a delicious meal.

The Roses Makes Cake Smashing Feel So Good

Roach credited much of the success of Theo and Ivy’s acerbic onscreen dynamic to McNamara’s script (“I was in awe of his ability to write that kind of conflict, where people are saying and doing horrible things to each other with such a poetic, witty, amazing dialogue.”) and the stars’ performances, he certainly added much of his own flair to the proceedings.

One element he was very invested in highlighting was the feuding through food, since Ivy’s success as a chef was at the crux of her marital troubles. “I’ve written food fights into a few scripts,” he explained. “Because I think humans are polite and civil with each other most of the time, and we try to get along. Food is such a warm, cozy environment, but I love to see what happens when we get so off track, and the thing representing warmth now becomes a weapon.”

There’s a catharsis that the audience feels alongside Cumberbatch and Colman’s characters when the food starts flying in The Roses, even as it makes the situation worse for everyone involved. “It now becomes an enjoyable thing to throw at each other and mash into each other. It’s such a breakdown of all the civility and relationship glue; everything’s coming undone.” Roach concluded that food “was really important to the story,” which is why he used it as a metaphor. “The very thing that should be uniting us is the thing that pushes us apart.”

Why McNamara & Roach Strayed From The War Of The Roses’ Brutality

The final moments of The War of the Roses are infamous, leaving us with the image of a couple whose pride could not overcome their love even at the end of their lives. Roach’s The Roses, meanwhile, paints with a softer brush and leaves room for hope. Theo may be “a little bit overly self-assured and overconfident,” which allows the audience to anticipate his fall from grace early on, but the movie is less interested in chastising him than in “questioning how he and Ivy are going to cope with their new power dynamic.”

I do think it’s a cool, modern story. A lot of couples work and, as she says, “Who’s going to make the sacrifice in this marriage?” I love the moment when he’s thrown by that question, and I think that’s a really cool question the movie asked.

Perhaps it is that affection for Theo and Ivy that kept the creative team from destroying their home (built by Theo’s own hands) as much as the original movie did. “I knew that the house would become both a symbol of Theo regaining his mojo, but also of hope for the marriage,” Roach explained. “But he overdoes it so much, and it’s so audacious that you sense that it might also be their downfall. It could be their redemption or it could be their downfall.”

That ambiguity echoes throughout the movie, which never loses sight of the possibility for reconciliation, though it was somewhat more definitive in pre-production. “I always hoped that we could really have it collapse and come apart,” the director confided, “But it became [too] spectacle-oriented.”

The Roses is out now on digital platforms before being available to stream November 20 on Hulu and Disney+.

Release Date

August 29, 2025

Director

Jay Roach

Writers

Warren Adler, Tony McNamara

Producers

Jay Roach, Michelle Graham, Adam Ackland, Leah Clarke, Ed Sinclair, Tom Carver