Must see for everyone
How do you hold on to someone who want stay and how do you get reed of someone who want leave?
Oliver and Barbara (Douglas and Turner) meet at the auction. With instant chemistry between the two they are soon married. Typical American family - perfect house, 2 children, work-slave husband and bored wife. As time goes by, Barbara realizes that she no longer likes Oliver and asks for a divorce. Unfortunately for her Oliver is still crazy about her, but agrees to give her the divorce. And as we all though this would be just another civilized split, all hell breaks loose. Barbara wants to keep the house that she found and decorated, but Oliver (who paid for it) will not give it up either. And after an advice from his lawyer (DeVito) he moves back into the house. While Barbara is determined to get Oliver to leave and Oliver is trying to rekindle the romance, there civilized coexistence quickly becomes very interesting.
Believe it or not I have not given much of the movie away. Yes,...
Black Comedy at its best
Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas star in this movie with a chemistry greater than either of their previous films together, namely Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile. Their shared screen time is filled with a frenzied mixture of passion, anger, lust, devotion, and resentment, a relationship that, however abstract and unrealistic it is skewed in this movie, reflects what's left of a lot of relationships once the lust leaves the marriage, or once a couple finally spends some time together (i.e. after the kids have left the nest).
It has been a long standing joke that once the kids go to college or leave the nest, many spouses find themselves wondering: "Who the hell did I marry?" Things that were never noticed now are found nagging; a sensitive husband suddenly becomes controlling; a neat homemaker suddenly becomes obsessively compulsive; a mother, now that her duties are cut, becomes anxious to get out of the house. This is exactly what this movie relates, from the Roses'...
Love it or hate it, Appreciate it!
It'd be a little redundant at this point out this film is a black comedy. That'd be like stating that Scream is a horror movie. But what exactly makes War of the Roses so funny yet so bleak? In my opinion it's the same type of entertainment one gets from listening to really nasty juicy gossip. Like when your tech-ed teacher tells you why it's bad to get your hair or fingers too close to the sanding machines.
The film is narrated by DeVito, a lawyer retelling a tale he lived through when dealing with a once happily married couple... an especially materialistic married couple! So the entire movie switches from 'past' to 'present,' focusing mostly on the story of the soon to be unhappy lovers. After their so-called civil divorce, they are both determined to keep the dream house they both contributed to, and Oliver, the once husband, is determined to keep his former wife, Barbara, who can't stand him to the point of making them both miserable! From here, the story just...
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