The Roses (2025)

Painful, mesmerizing, and sobering, The Roses paints the saddest rendition of marriage and long-term intimacy I've seen in a long time. Reminds me of Marriage Story, but more mordant, dramatic, and hilarious. Both Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman were marvelous. Olivia can give performances like this for shits and giggles but I actually feel like this was a career-best performance for Benedict. The barbs they trade were just so delicious. 

They say the most deadly emotion you can have in a relationship is contempt. Once it's there it digs, and rots and poisons everything good. The scary thing is that you'll hardly notice it unless you know specifically to look out for it, because when it gets you too look at your partner in the least favorable way possible, in the moment everything feels justified. Though at the end, I still am not sure if both Roses and SNL couple had the same marriage, just different standards and levels of inertia, or there is a fundamental difference in the levels of trust they allow each other. 

I did think the bits at the end were too over-the-top and uninteresting. They could have cut that and gave us more Andy Samberg. It does allow you to come to the realization that, even if the very end of the ending didn't happen, this relationship still won't have made it, and the damage would be almost just as bad.