Warren Adler’s dark comedy novel gets another big screen adaptation. It has previously been adapted to film by Danny DeVito and starred his Romancing the Stone co-stars Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. This time out, Olivia Coleman and Benedict Cumberbatch take on the lead roles of the Roses, a married couple who when adversity hits, and life changes upset their status quo they find out whether they can whether the storm, or kill each other – literally.

The actors makes the best of a mediocre script, elevating it with their performances. In fact, the pair of them are delightful to watch being snide and rude to one another even if the script isn’t as strong as it could be.

Theo (Cumberbatch) is an architect, Ivy (Coleman) is predominantly a mother, and runs a restaurant as a chef three times a week. When a storm destroys Theo’s latest building, and sends a deluge of customers to Ivy’s restaurant, including a high-profile reviewer, their roles are changed.

Ivy finds unparalleled success that gives her a food empire, while Theo takes over raising the kids, and builds a dream home for the family. And that begins to cause a huge amount of stress and chafing between the pair. Neither of them are wrong, they just have a problem meeting in the middle, consequently, their circling friends sense disaster, divorce and more.

There’s a solid supporting cast that includes Allison Janney, Ncuti Gatwa, Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon. They have obviously come to play, and there is some very funny moments, but there is nothing without Coleman and Cumberbatch to elevate the material.

The rapport between Cumberbatch and Coleman is delightful and the things they get away with saying to one another; English accents and being great actors give them a lot of leeway, are what make this film standout. It’s funny, rude, while not great.

But Coleman and Cumberbatch are so much fun.

Samberg is nicely restrained, McKinnon is always McKinnon, which is fine, but sometimes it feels like she goes for the laugh instead of the performance (at least in this film). I always delight in seeing Janney, and Gatwa – I’m a fan!

Crack a bottle of wine, settle in for two great leads, a mediocre script, and just pass an evening with The Roses.

Jay Roach is a reliable director. There’s every chance you will be entertained by this film, but by the next morning, it’ll probably be gone with your hangover.