In ‘The Roses,’ Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman play a couple at odds

From NPR.

Many movies that have been made detail the start of relationships.

Those dizzying first moments of love — flirtation and the spark of attraction, first kisses and the will-they-or-won’t-they tension of so many romantic comedies.

But what about a film centered on the other end of love, when things fall spectacularly apart? That’s what we see play out in the new dark comedy, "The Roses", starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman. They play husband and wife, Theo and Ivy, an architect and chef, respectively. They are a couple who were once very much in love, but now — two children and one transatlantic move later — are facing the possible demise of their marriage.

The movie, directed by Jay Roach, is a reimagining of the 1989 film "The War of the Roses", starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, based on a 1981 novel of the same name.

Cumberbatch and Colman are long time friends who were looking for a project to work on together when the opportunity to put their spin on the macabre comedy came about.

The two stopped by NPR’s New York studio to talk with All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly about playing a not-so-happily married couple.

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