‘When I look at you lately, I just want to smash your face in...’
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there aren’t loads of films out there about divorce. People generally go to the cinema for a good time and watching a marriage crumble before your eyes does not often make for a relaxing, enjoyable evening. There are exceptions, however. Kramer vs Kramer and Marriage Story are both prominent examples of films that tackle divorce in a grown-up and heart-wrenching way. On the other end of the spectrum, we have The War of the Roses (recently remade as The Roses with Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch), a curious black comedy in which an initial break-up soon turns nasty. Against all odds, it’s a lot of fun…
Oliver (Michael Douglas) and Barbara Rose (Kathleen Turner) are unhappily married. A heart attack scare for the former makes the latter realise that she doesn’t love him anymore (she does, in fact, wish he were dead), and so, they begin divorce proceedings. A small conflict about who gets to keep the house spirals out of control as each party attempts to one-up the other. The whole thing is narrated by Danny DeVito, who also directs.
Adapted from Warren Adler’s novel, The War of the Roses is a black comedy that is properly dark. I haven’t seen the remake yet, but I’ll be surprised if it’s as acerbic and unforgiving as this film is. It’s as powerful a depiction of a dysfunctional relationship as any more dramatic film, driven by the fact that Douglas and Turner had already collaborated on several films before this and so they had a shared history both together and in the eyes of the audience. In 1990, when the film was released, Turner was at the top of her game and Douglas was about to become one of the most bankable movie stars in the world. Their natural star charisma shines through to the point that while this is an ensemble piece, it very much feels like a two-hander for most of its runtime, with DeVito providing the only other memorable performance.
DeVito has not directed a feature film since Duplex in 2003, and hasn’t released a profitable movie since Matilda in 1996, and even that was only a modest success. With that in mind, there is a strong argument that The War of the Roses is DeVito’s finest hour as a director; it’s certainly the film that has endured the longest, and that’s because the mutually destructive, cynical tone is sadly evergreen. This is a film that pulls no punches and offers no chance of redemption during the film’s grim conclusion. I can’t speak to the remake, but if you like your black comedies to be truly obsidian, then this one is for you.
