Directed by Jay Roach | Written by Tony McNamara, based on the book by Warren Adler | 105min | ▲▲▲1/2

If this movie, or its trailer, seems familiar that’s because there was another dark comedy adapting the source novel about a deeply acrimonious divorce back in 1989. It was called The War Of The Roses, starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito, who also directed. (And if you want to see that one… and you’re in the Halifax area… it screens Saturday night at Carbon Arc Cinema.)

While there’s no way the new movie would be as mean as the original,  Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman are always entirely watchable and they are the central reason to buy a ticket.

Here they play two Brits. Ivy’s a chef with her own seafood restaurant chain called “We’ve Got Crabs!” while Theo’s an architect. They move to Northern California and have a couple of very American kids. His career takes a disastrous stumble, leaving him to be a stay-at-home father, while her restaurants go gangbusters, leading to all kinds of trouble in their relationship. She finances his design and construction of a dream home overlooking the ocean but feels distant from their hyper-athletic kids.

There’s a lot of foul language and fury in this story of a failing marriage. A big part of the appeal here are these very English actors surrounded by Americans like Kate McKinnon and Andy Samberg, the Brits’ exquisite wit bobs up in a sea of Californians.

That’s not to say McKinnon and Samberg aren’t also funny, but this comedy sails more on the caustic British humour than it does American — the “c” word is used with impunity. It might also have to do with a few cast members, British actors playing Americans, including Ncuti Gatwa and Jamie Demetriou. Full marks as well to Sunita Mani and a cameoing Allison Janney.

The script leans into the wordplay, and as such works better as a broad comedy than as a realistic examination of a couple who let their ambitions and insecurities undermine their happiness. In that regard the 1989 picture has a whole lot more edge — it’s more of a dark satire, with more bite and chill in its class issues, more believable as a portrait of a relationship that goes south where issues around money and recrimination are  deeply irreconcilable.

Here the picture indulges in more of the Roses’ happier days, and Ivy and Theo are actually a lot more sympathetic, more quick to own their own mistakes. Their early passion and goofy issues around pride and ill communication are lightly pleasing, with the flip to full-on rage less plausible, but certainly still a gas. The ending is also a whole lot less caustic, but maybe that’s OK. Audiences are more likely to leave the cinema with warmer feelings about their spouses and exes.