Tagline: Once in a lifetime comes a motion picture that makes you feel like falling in love all over again. This is not that movie

The best word I can use to describe Danny DeVito's 1989 masterpiece War of the Roses is 'Hilarious.' What we have here are a couple who had a fairytale meeting, fell in love, married, had kids... and then life went to hell in a handbasket. The divorce (after a bit of background happens) is what you mainly see.

Michael Douglas as Oliver Rose finds a loophole in divorce law which allows him to remain in the house (mansion actually) until everything is settled. This doesn't sit too well with his wife, Barbara (Played by Kathleen Turner.) Madness and mayhem happen. What they put each other through is funny as hell.

I think my favorite two parts are when Oliver comes into Barbara's dinner party and pees on the fish which is cooking, and when she retaliates for that act by running over his rare car with her SUV. How many times have people felt like doing just that? I know I did...

You have sunk lower than frog shit on the bottom of a New Jersey scum swamp!

DeVito hit the mark with the casting in this one. I've said before that I am no fan of Kathleen Turner, but I'm having to re-assess that with the movies I've been watching lately. I praised her to the high heavens for her role in Serial Mom and I'm afraid I have to do so again with this one. She was perfect here. She's just the right amount of over-the-top without being too outrageous. I swear you can see the delightful flame in her eyes just before laying the smack-down on hubby-dearest.

..my father used to say that a man can never outdo a woman when it comes to love and revenge.

Michael Douglas has always been a favorite of mine, and not just because of the chiseled good looks. He's just fun to watch, even when (or maybe especially when..) he's just being a clueless, daft, condescending husband. Being female, I, of course, was rooting for the wife and got much pleasure whenever Oliver got what he deserved. Make no mistake though, he gives as good as he gets in this one. He just sets that jaw of his and you know what is about to follow is going to be gooood....

I have not read the novel by Warren Adler, but I probably should. I can tell you though that the screenplay by Michael Leeson was just letter-perfect in the comedic sense. Just close enough to what could happen in a divorce that we laugh half the time simply because it rings so true with us. These characters do the things we wish we had the guts to do ourselves.

Danny De Vito, along with being the director, plays the narrator here too. He's attorney Gavin D'Amato, family friend and then Oliver's representation. The story is told through his eyes as he's trying to reason with a new client who is filing for his own divorce. It's told as a cautionary tale.

This one runs 116 minutes (having been cut down from 3 hours and 4 minutes) and is rated R in the US. Well yeah it's violent in a adultly funny way, and there is gonna be language in any violent divorce... I'd think low-teens on up would get a kick out of this one.

Another 5 full stars for a Turner vehicle. Maybe I am a fan after all.... don't miss this one.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD