An excellent
dark comedy directed by
Danny DeVito and starring
Michael Douglas and
Kathleen Turner.
The War of the Roses is a sharp and witty
satire of married (and divorced) life.
The plot is relatively simplistic: Barbara and Oliver Rose are a married couple whose materialism sours their marriage. A nasty divorce ensues, but both Oliver and Barbara want to keep their very expensive dream house, and they each launch a campaign to force the other out. In the course of the campaign, the house and its contents are systematically destroyed.
This is a dark, dark comedic masterpiece, with both Douglas and Turner giving excellent performances. DeVito's direction is wonderfully offbeat albeit, at times, perhaps a little too offbeat. Still, only DeVito could have made this relentlessly vicious movie. I highly recommend it.
anthropod says she heard that this movie was based on the messy divorce of Martha Stewart. Interesting...