The War Of The Roses (1989, rewatch): Enough with the nastiness already

The War Of The Roses, 1989, directed by Danny DeVito, streamed on YouTube, 2 stars.

I saw this 35 or something years ago in the theater, and I remembered finding it a little weird with a little bit of dark humor. I guess our sense of humor does evolve over time -- at least mine has.

I found absolutely nothing funny about The War Of The Roses this time around. And to be honest, I didn't like it much at all. I just found it mean-spirited and hateful.

I've been a fan of all three of the principals -- Danny DeVito, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner -- for a long time. So I was a bit shocked this evening that I reacted so negatively to The War Of The Roses.

I found nothing to like about either of the Roses, played by Douglas and Turner. Oliver Rose was a two-dimensional self-involved humorless yuppie lawyer. Barbara Rose had a little more depth and heart as a dutiful homemaker who took control of her own life against Oliver's wishes after the two kids left the nest.

The Roses at that point decided to divorce and started fighting tooth and nail over the house. There really was no buildup, they just all of a sudden started getting over-the-top nasty with each other. And I didn't find any of it amusing at all.

And without finding the humor here, all I was left with was a couple of shitty people being shitty to each other. 

I'm not sure how to explain this. Look at my review a few days ago of The Longest Yard, and you'll see I had the same humorless reaction to that one. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the kind of stupid shit and nastiness I used to laugh at in the back half of the 2010s has come back tenfold, and now it just seems dangerous and existential.

Nastiness now is just too damn evil and serious for me to laugh at.

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