An allergy charity has criticized new film The Roses over a controversial scene in which a husband deliberately feeds his wife food she is allergic to, then withholds her EpiPen until she agrees to sign divorce papers.
The black comedy, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman as Theo and Ivy Rose, is a remake of Danny DeVito’s 1989 film The War of the Roses.
In an open letter to the film’s producers, the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation said they were “shocked and surprised to see that you used Ivy’s food allergy to raspberries in the film on three occasions for dramatic and comedic purposes.”
The Foundation continued: “Withholding treatment from someone who is experiencing an allergic reaction to food is both dangerous and irresponsible. Furthermore, the way the adrenaline auto-injector (AAI) was administered in the film, again on three occasions, was inaccurate. It should be administered into the outer thigh, not into the arm. This kind of misinformation is unhelpful at best and, at worst, harmful.
“In addition, for many people, the administration of an adrenaline pen buys time in order to receive urgent medical attention in a hospital setting. It is grossly misleading to suggest that as soon as a person is injected with an adrenaline pen, they carry on with their day as normal.”
The Foundation told The Independent they have contacted the film’s producers but have not yet received a response.
The Roses is directed by Austin Powers filmmaker Jay Roach. The Independent has approached Roach for comment.
The film was praised by The Independent critic Clarisse Loughrey, who found Cumberbatch and Colman to be “relentlessly entertaining” in her four-star review.
“Ivy and Theo’s relationship echoes the heated but toxic marriage between Catherine the Great and Peter III, as depicted by McNamara in TV show The Great,” writes Loughrey.
“There’s a real dexterity to how he tethers the extremes of desire and disgust so closely together that you can barely tell the difference, with an emotionally maximalist wit that feels precious in an era that privileges efficiency and simplicity. Yes, there’s always power in a wordless look, but it can be just as satisfying to chew on a line like, ‘Never leave me, but when you do, will you kill me on the way out?’”
Kate McKinnon and Zoe Chao, who also star in the film, recently told The Independent about filming one memorable scene, which sees tensions come to a head while the couple host their friends for dinner, politely insulting each other throughout the evening.
“We all broke,” Chao said, as McKinnon admitted: “I laughed and it was ruined and it was unusable because of me.”
