THE ROOM NEXT DOOR

Spain | 2024 | 110m | English

Cast: Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Alessandro Nivola

Director(s): Pedro Almodóvar

Ingrid (Oscar winner Julianne Moore) is a bestselling author so famously afraid of death she has written a book about it. When she learns that Martha (Oscar winner Tilda Swinton, also at this year’s Festival in The End) — a former war correspondent — is ill, she visits her in hospital, reigniting a friendship from years past, when both were journalists.

Martha is fighting another war now, and the rekindled closeness between the women means Ingrid is drawn into her gruelling cycle of treatments as stories are told, secrets are revealed, and regret, redemption, and mortality are discussed over tea. One day, Martha asks Ingrid for the one thing she is most hesitant to give. The way they negotiate life’s deepest choices is what makes the film so memorable.

Courtesy of TIFF

TIFF 24 REVIEW BY: DARREN ZAKUS

DATE: OCTOBER 24, 2024

RATING: 3 out of 5

The Room Next Door features two powerhouse performances from Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton in a moving film about friendship and mortality, exploring a difficult subject matter with a sweet honesty and tenderness, but Pedro Almodóvar’s first English language script suffers from awkward dialogue that is evident that the beauty of his story got lost in translation.

Pedro Almodóvar is one of the most celebrated Spanish directors internationally, having worked with the ever talented Penelope Cruz and Antonion Banderas on multiple occasions. He’s won two Oscars for his work as both a screenwriter and as a filmmaker, and his latest film, The Room Next Door, recently took home the Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival back in September. Starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, The Room Next Door marks Almodóvar English language debut film that features all the hallmarks of his revered career: melodrama, an exceptional use of colour, irreverent humour, and excellent performances. Though, the language barrier riddles the film with unnatural and clunky dialogue that hampers an otherwise interesting and engaging take on euthanasia, preventing the film from reaching its powerful potential.

Adapting Sigrid Nunez’s novel What Are You Going Through, who’s other novel The Friend also had a film adaptation at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, the film tells the story of two friends who reconnect after losing touch in an unusual circumstance that ultimately bonds these two women through love and respect. Watching a film about euthanasia is not easy, but the centre of the story is not death and suicide, but friendship, love and respect. Almodóvar captures this sweet connection with his vibrant use of colour that injects the film with a life despite the subject matter all being about ending life, and this emphasis on colour extends into the costuming choices, set decoration and the beautiful magical realism moments of snow and the pink sky. Alberto Iglesias’s musical score has a haunting quality that captures that gravity of the film’s subject matter, but the entire film is undeniably a tender exploration of the mindset of ending one’s life, the emotional challenges on both the individual and their loved ones, and the testament to the power of true friendship.

Where the film struggles is in its script. Almodóvar, being a native Spanish speaker, is not able to create such smooth flowing dialogue as he would be able to in his native tongue. The lines just feel unnatural, as no one who was fluent in English would talk this way as it is stilted and cumbersome. Yes, some of it can be attributed to Almodóvar’s humorous stylings, but it feels like there was something lost in translation from how Almodóvar envisioned the dialogue to flow in his mind in Spanish from who it comes across in the film in English. Lots of the dialogue is something no one would ever say in the English language, as you don’t announce you are cutting fruit ever (I’m looking at Moore’s Ingrid specifically), which could have been avoided with another writer being involved to help with the translation portion of writing.

Luckily, when your film stars Moore and Swinton in the lead roles, their talents as actresses can remedy a cumbersome script. Both of them soar in their performances, with Swinton capturing the solace within Martha knowing that her suffering will not be prolonged with a tenderness that sets the tone for the film’s discussion of euthanasia. Moore is sublime as Ingrid, Martha’s friend who is going to be with Martha at the end of her life, balancing the care and understanding she has in her friend’s decision with the uncomfortableness knowing that she will unexpectedly find Martha dead one day and will have to maneuver the legality of it. As a pairing, Moore and Swinton are phenomenal, instantly bringing to life this unique bond between these two women and the deep respect and unwavering friendship despite the situation they find themselves in, reminding you why both of them are two of the best actresses currently working. John Turturro is great as Ingrid’s friend Damian, bringing some moments of levity as he helps Ingrid through the situation, while Alessandro Nivola is well cast in his single scene. But The Room Next Door is largely a one two punch from Moore and Swinton that no one can distract from minus a scene stealing comedic turn from Alvise Rigo as Ingrid’s gym trainer Jonah, and neither Moore and Swinton disappoint for a second.

Reactions to The Room Next Door have been deeply varied, with the film having won the Gold Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival in September to other critics (myself included) who think the film is just fine. Thematically, there is a lot to digest with The Room Next Door as Pedro Almodóvar walks a tight line of embracing the emotions of the story without letting the film become a completely depressing experience, in which he succeeds. Even with a script that has some of the most awkward dialogue you will hear this year that signals something was lost in translation while Pedro Almodóvar was writing the film, Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton deliver two excellent performances that more than make up for the script’s shortcomings, making The Room Next Door a poignant exploration of friendship, life and death.