The Roses’ ending may leave you somewhat shattered or utterly nauseated, because you know that this is the end of something great. The Roses tells the story of an eccentric couple named Ivy and Theo, who find each other at a point in their lives where they have big dreams for the future, and nothing in their way. Except suddenly, they’re in love with each other and in California. Soon after moving countries, the couple starts a beautiful family together, and they look like they’ve got everything sorted out, but here’s the thing: they haven’t. The Roses is a “black comedy” because, despite how much it’ll make you laugh, it’ll leave you with a sense of dread, especially in its second half. However, this doesn’t mean there can’t be light at the end of the tunnel. This is a film very clearly written for today, despite being adapted from a book (which had already been turned into a movie back in 1989) from a very long time ago. I’m not just talking about the kind of jokes and the way the kids respond to the idea of their parents getting divorced; I’m specifically talking about the ending of the film, which is way more optimistic than the original film.
Spoiler Alert
Do The Roses Hate Each Other?
The third act of the film is basically about these two people, who were deeply in love with each other, being at each other’s throats and trying everything they can to steal the house away from each other, in the process of getting divorced. What used to be banter develops into resentment, and they spew genuine hate for each other, and this all culminates in that one moment when Theo connects with the whale and decides it’s time to leave Ivy. When Ivy was raising the kids, she was letting them be children, telling them to have fun, and showing them the beauty of life. However, when Theo took over, after humiliating himself in front of the whole world, he turned them into soldiers who suddenly had goals and forgot they had a mom who wanted to spoil them rotten. If Theo weren’t so jealous of Ivy’s success, they could’ve had a chance to preserve the relationship that she wanted with her kids. But instead, he took it as a win, and Ivy took it as a loss. She saw it as Theo taking her kids away from her (which he kind of did), leaving her with nothing.
So, when Theo asks Ivy for a divorce, it makes full sense that she wants to keep the house she paid for; it was, at the end of the day, their dream house. That’s the bit they both forgot about. But here’s the thing: while the love was lost, it wasn’t entirely gone. Both Ivy and Theo were ambitious people, and when one failed, the other one took off, pushing them too far apart. This distance wasn’t just physical; it was emotional as well. They forgot how much they meant to each other, and the time apart soured them like old milk, making them both question themselves about this relationship more. But, at the end of the day, they didn’t hate each other; they just thought they did, because you can’t hate someone you love so much.
Are the Roses Dead?
At the end of the day, this is a battle of egos, and when Theo tells Ivy about the whale and how he knows he has to leave her, she tells him that she will be the one who decides if they get divorced or not. The thing they’re fighting over is, of course, the house. Theo’s art is Ivy’s prized possession. To me, it looks like Ivy wants to keep the house to keep Theo as well. It’s like a trap that ties them both together, but Theo takes it too far when he gives Ivy raspberries to set off her allergies so she’ll sign the papers. Of course, she’d pull a gun on the man who tried to kill her to blackmail her into signing some papers (shoutout Zendaya). This sets into motion a sequence of crazy yelling, shooting, fruit throwing, and also knife-wielding. Both characters are enraged at the thought that the other is willing to kill them, but this is not true, is it? All they really needed to do was tell each other how much they still mean to them. It should’ve been as simple as that. Once they started pushing each other, they could never stop, because they just assumed the other hated them more.
The movie slows down when Ivy shoots at the chandelier, which nearly falls on Theo, a reference to the tragic ending of the 1989 film. Nobody wants to kill anybody here; all they really want is a connection. Finally, Theo locks himself in the bathroom, and Ivy stands outside before asking him if he really meant it when he said he never stopped loving her. Also, can we talk about this nerd boy casually naming his AI Hal, like the one from 2001: A Space Odyssey? I suppose I should also mention that this whole use of technology in the house makes it even clearer how much they’ve really drifted, because now they need a computer to help them communicate with each other. But anyway, they both realize they still love each other and that all they really needed to do was communicate, especially about that bit. They’re both looking for that same human connection they found in each other the first time they met: Theo, trying to get away from his colleagues, who were like robots, and Ivy, doing the thing that brings everybody together, cooking.
In The Roses’ ending, the duo decide to give each other yet another chance, and this time it looks like it’s for real, because at the end of the day, they don’t know how to live without each other, and all this fighting has just been a clash of egos. However, during that big fight, Theo managed to break the iconic Julia Child stove because it was so precious to Ivy, without realizing he was basically setting it up to burn the whole house down. But hey, they’ve always been saying to each other that if one of them is going, they should take the other one down with them. While this is just something they say to each other during their regular banter, the words they’ve always been so good at end up coming true. Because, in the end, Theo tells Hal to start the fire to set the mood, and we’ve already seen that the gas from the stove has started to spread across the house. So yes, we can only assume that this cool house made out of wood with antique furniture will blow up in no time, not allowing the couple to escape. However, we must appreciate that this is a much more optimistic ending than the original film (and presumably book), because the couple has reconciled. I think the film’s just trying to tell us to communicate more, as a generation that is drowning in communication tech but can’t gather the initiative to actually reach out and talk to someone.
While the house is gone with them, what they have left behind is their legacy through their kids, who are obviously going to be devastated. Ultimately, I suppose the business will go to the kids, which would take care of them, but they’ll be left with the memory of their parents hating each other, never truly understanding that what they saw was never the whole picture, and truthfully, they did in fact love each other very much.
