The Roses

Although it’s assembled a distinguished collection of talent on both sides of the camera, The Roses doesn’t feel very collaborative.

After all, it’s a divorce movie of the nastiest variety, as depicted both in Warren Adler’s novel and the 1989 dark comedy adaptation that preceded this reimagining from director Jay Roach (Meet the Parents).

However, this version has softened some of the edges for contemporary mainstream palatability, in the process draining the effectiveness from its acerbic barbs and witty repartee.

“I don’t think you have the capacity to fix your problems,” a therapist tells Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Ivy (Olivia Colman) in a hilarious opening sequence. That opinion feels spot-on.

Validation comes after the film breezes through the happier moments in their decade-plus marriage, which begins with Theo as a successful architect and Ivy as a seafood chef trying to make her way.

The tables turn when Theo suffers a humiliating professional mishap that leaves him unemployed, while Ivy’s startup California eatery becomes a surprise hit.

He should be proud and supportive. Yet Theo is overcome with jealousy and resentment without a suitable outlet or coping mechanism, other than parenting their two teenage children. At his lowest point, Ivy’s future as a restaurateur has never been brighter.

Their marriage crumbles as they both become more honest and less filtered through a daily barrage of competitive insults and embarrassing outbursts. But is there still a spark?

As their bickering becomes mean-spirited instead of amusing, it funnels toward an escalating series of silly and extreme shenanigans that make you wonder whether they might be a perfect sociopathic match, after all.

The forces the film into a tricky balancing act, leaving us with little rooting interest in either of these shallow and stubborn people, or whether they ultimately are together or apart.

Fortunately, Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon inject some quirky energy into their sequences as the couple’s increasingly exasperated friends.

Updating the material for an age of viral videos and social-media fame, the screenplay by Tony McNamara (The Favourite) generates some big laughs but muddles its broader satirical ambitions or explorations of gender roles.

The Roses is exaggerated rather than emotionally grounded while trying to have it both ways. By the time Theo and Ivy eventually give up, so have moviegoers.

Rated R, 104 minutes.