With very rare exceptions, it’s less entertaining than a year’s worth of marriage counseling. Nick Schager, The Daily Beast, regarding The Roses film
Humor is so subjective. New comedy The Roses is an example of this, with critics swinging widely between not appreciating it to finding it pretty funny.
But the scene that seems to evoke some of the best laughs among viewers is the opener, a couples therapy session based on an assignment the therapist, Janice (Belinda Bromilow, who’s married to The Roses scriptwriter, Tony McNamara) has apparently given. Each partner is to state things they like about the other. The couple in conflict are Ivy (Olivia Colman) and Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch).
“The couple respond to their assignment with furious, dangerous barbs toward each other that are as shockingly ugly as they are hilarious, having the time of their lives as they do so, their joy enhanced as they observe their marriage counselor’s confusion, shock, and displeasure. Rather than confronting this behavior, helping her clients see what is motivating their hate-filled joy, Janice terminates the session, offers no referral, and ushers Theo and Ivy to her front door, enhancing the couple’s glee” (SaraKay Smullens, SocialWorker.com).
Before they leave, Janice has specifically declared, “I don’t think you have the capacity to fix your problems.” Theo and Ivy have each questioned, albeit in a humorous way, if the shrink is “actually allowed to say that,” wondering if it’s “unprofessional” and/or “malpractice.”
Social worker Smullens seems to agree: “You would have to go a long, long way to find a more poorly trained, clueless, and misdirected mental health professional.”
Well, here’s the gist of the scene:
Smullens offers a variety of things Janice could have said or done differently. For instance, she could have said, I see you are having a wonderful time insulting each other and trying to shock me. What the hell is going on? (See the above article for more.)
From another therapist’s point of view (me), what I like about the scene is the way it shows a couple having its own unique way of communicating and sense of humor that can persist despite a crisis in the relationship. Moreover, it evokes an often real-world therapy result: Upon the therapist criticizing and/or stating an unwelcomed opinion there can be a unity-in-opposition moment, one in other words that brings the couple closer together, at least for a little while. Some skilled therapists, unlike Janice in The Roses, intentionally work to achieve a similar outcome.
By the way, although this scene occurs at the beginning of The Roses, the bulk of the film is the backstory of how they got there, which involves a long-term love connection overly marred by situational stressors.
