leeper@mtgzx.att.com (Mark R. Leeper) (12/18/89)
THE WAR OF THE ROSES
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: The story of a marriage dissolving in
hatred is given a bittersweet treatment by Danny DeVito
directing the now-popular team of Michael Douglas and
Kathleen Turner. This is a good idea for a film but it is
not well handled. Rating : +1.
THE WAR OF THE ROSES is the story of the marriage of Oliver and Barbara
Rose. It tells how they met, fell in love, married, and raised a family.
But the primary focus of the film is on how the marriage foundered and on
the bitter battle between the two as the marriage dissolves and becomes a
contest of wills during the divorce. The film gives new meaning to the term
"idiot plot" (the plot that works only because the main characters are
idiots). In this case, the point of the film--repeated over and over by the
Roses's lawyer, who is telling the story--is that the Roses *are* being
idiots. They are willing to give up everything they have to be "one-up" on
the other. They are empty people with an empty marriage who are finally
given a cause to live for, which turns out to be destroying each other.
The team of Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito, popular
since ROMANCING THE STONE, here turn out another comedy. But the humor is
only a very thin veneer over what is at heart a very black and bleak story
verging on a parable of the Middle East or Northern Ireland.
Perhaps because the story is told mostly from Oliver's point of view,
he is the more sympathetic of the two principal characters. Barbara acts
and Oliver reacts when the marriage begins breaking up Barbara attacks and
Oliver counter-attacks. The film builds to one final evening when Oliver
becomes angry enough that both are attacking at the same time.
THE WAR OF THE ROSES is just at an awkward level of style. It could
have worked better if it were light, such as NEIGHBORS, or heavier as a
serious straight drama. As it is it seems like a comic replug of an old
made-for-television movie, THE WAR BETWEEN THE TATES. Making jokes about
this sort of self-destructive behavior is too much like making jokes about
leukemia. There is the germ of a good idea here, but it is improperly
handled. My rating is a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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