Michael Douglas Calls This Movie Wonderfully Sick and You Won’t Believe Why

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Michael Douglas once pointed out a darkly funny movie that he felt perfectly showed how messy and chaotic a failing marriage can be. He told Entertainment Weekly about a film that wasn’t just meant to be funny, but deliberately made audiences feel uneasy.

That film was The War of the Roses, a 1989 movie directed by Danny DeVito. It’s a raw and intense look at a divorce that escalates into something deadly. Douglas stars with Kathleen Turner as the Roses, a couple whose relationship goes from a loving ideal to a brutal fight over their house.

As their love fades, the story becomes both darkly humorous and heartbreaking, showing how easily affection can turn dangerous. While Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) touched on similar issues, this film took a much more cynical and unflinching look at the end of a relationship.

When Douglas first read the screenplay, he doubted a major studio would approve of its shocking ending. He even asked the director, DeVito, if they’d be forced to change it, but DeVito was determined to stay true to the story’s bleak and honest message.

Douglas pointed out that DeVito has a rather dark and twisted sense of humour, which allowed him to preserve the film’s gritty and authentic feel. The movie was remarkable for its intense portrayal of a couple’s breakdown and its refusal to offer a conventional happy ending.

Unlike typical Hollywood romances, it bravely exposed the harsh realities some couples face when their past becomes a source of pain. This bold approach paved the way for later, critically-acclaimed films about divorce, like the 2019 movie Marriage Story.

Although Douglas is famous for many classic films, The War of the Roses stands out as a particularly unusual and possibly overlooked work. Despite receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Cannes Film Festival, people generally talked more about his popular films than this darkly humorous one.

The 81-year-old actor has largely retired as of February 2026, and doesn’t plan to return to filmmaking unless he’s offered a truly exceptional part. He’s been spending the last year traveling and with family, though he recently attended a film event in New York where he reminisced about his career. There, he shared a funny story about Jack Nicholson playfully ribbing him about his performance—specifically, his ‘hair acting’—while filming Wall Street.

You can currently see him in the 2025 drama Looking Through Water, where he acted with his son, Cameron Douglas. The film tells the story of a man remembering a life-changing fishing trip that helped repair his family relationships, and also stars David Morse and Walker Scobell. He’s also been speaking out about how technology is changing the film industry, believing that Silicon Valley is increasingly controlling and oversimplifying the creative process.

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2026-02-10 21:14