Few things are sadder, sillier, or scarier than the break-up of a long-married pair, and in THE WAR OF THE ROSES, director Danny DeVito captures this fiasco in its full, blackly comic ingloriousness. After 17 years of wedlock, Barbara Rose (Kathleen Turner) can't stand her husband, Oliver
(Michael Douglas). He still loves her--but he loves their big, beautiful, antique-filled house more, and therein lies the cautionary tale, told by Gavin D'Amato (director DeVito), a divorce lawyer who recounts the progressively crazier story to a prospective client. Stuck (for legal reasons) in
the house together as they begin divorce proceedings, the Roses escalate tensions until...
Released:
1989
Rated:
R
Length:
116 mins