Starring Broadway’s living legend Bernadette Peters and a pre-Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Rachel Brosnahan, director/co-writer Lisa Albright’s Coming Up Roses tells the story of a narcissistic mother and people-pleasing daughter trying to start over. Despite the talented cast and serious themes, the film feels dull and unrealistic, often relishing in caricatures of misery. Unless a film collection specializes in the careers of its stars, Coming Up Roses is an unnecessary addition.
Diane (Bernadette Peters) moves with her younger daughter Alice (Rachel Brosnahan) to start over closer to her older, recently married daughter Cherie (Shannon Esper), a cycle-breaker who has found a sense of stability through hard work and a blue-collar husband. Abandoned by her husband and the father of her children six years prior, Diane cannot keep down a job or reliable housing and relies on fifteen-year-old Alice for emotional (and financial) support.
As a depressive though talented woman with delusions of grandeur, Diane’s end goal is unclear for most of the film. Is it to catch a break and use her performing talents as a career? To get a man to take care of her? To indulge in her self-destructive tendencies until life simply falls to pieces around her and someone else has to pick up the pieces? While Diane seems to waste away her days modeling shapely outfits and warbling the occasional verse from Fiddler on the Roof or Sweet Charity, Alice tries to keep the household above water by working $20 days at a donut shop or, eventually, running drugs for the local dealer.
The supporting cast includes Peter Friedman (Succession) as Charles, a rent collector with terrible boundaries and romantic inclinations towards Diane, Reyna de Courcy as Alice’s scrappy neighbor Cat, caught in the cycle of poverty, and Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale, Hereditary) in a small but pleasant role as Cat’s God-fearing mother. De Courcy stands out in her role as an amateur thief with an impish grin and the compact facial features of a silent film actress, despite her character’s ‘00s alternative style.
While the film picks up speed in its third act, Coming Up Roses’ stilted dialogue and the meandering plot fails to tackle any of its myriad themes (poverty, sexual violence, drugs, dysfunctional families, narcissism, etc.) in a thoughtful way. “How dare you treat us like the rest of this neighborhood,” Diane once chides a police officer, encapsulating what’s wrong with the movie: these characters feel they deserve better than the life they’ve been handed and the actors portraying them definitely deserve better than the script they’ve been dealt.
Coming Up Roses’ greatest sin? Using Sondheim lyrics for its title and therefore comparing the drifting Diane to the greatest narcissistic mother of show business, Gypsy’s Mama Rose, while simultaneously failing to properly utilize the Gypsy 2003 Revival’s Mama Rose herself: Bernadette Peters!
What kind of film collection would this title be suitable for?
Coming Up Roses would be a suitable title for film collections that include modern, independent dramas.
What type of library programming could use this title?
Libraries could use Coming Up Roses when celebrating the career of Bernadette Peters or when highlighting modern, indie women filmmakers.
What subjects or college majors would benefit from the content covered in this film?
Students studying psychology might benefit from subjects covered in Coming Up Roses, such as the cyclical nature of trauma and poverty, narcissistic personalities, and dysfunctional family dynamics.