Review: The Room Next Door – Death becomes her

Directed by Pedro Almodovar
Starring Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, John Turturro

8/10 

This new film from Pedro Almodovar (his first English-language film) is certainly dealing with some heavy and morbid subject matters, but it’s still able to inject a decent amount of humour, humanity, and bright colours in itself.

Ingrid (Julianne Moore) hears about an old friend of hers, Martha (Tilda Swinton), who’s unfortunately sick in hospital, suffering from a painful and debilitating cancer. With treatment feeling like an option that isn’t working, Martha has the hefty proposal to Ingrid—to be near her in the room next door when she euthanises herself.

Ingrid is obviously aghast at this proposal. But she knows that this is definitely Martha’s will as she heads towards her oblivion on her own terms. So with this idea feeling slightly more palatable, Ingrid agrees to travel to a nice vacation home in the country with Martha for one last great time together.

This is quite the confronting concept for this film to be launching off with. And to make things even more dire, there are Ingrid’s conversations with her friend Damian (John Turturro), who likes to have riverside lunches with her talking about the inevitable and suicidal doom of our planet’s climate crisis. There’s an obvious, but effective parallel to be made between this personal story and the largeness of the world’s own demise.

And yet, the film is directed in such a way as to feel rather breezy and calming, and the musings these characters’ have on their pasts and (perhaps limited) futures also feel more meditative and accepting rather than despairing.

Almodovar likely couldn’t have cast two better actresses, who give it their all with this hefty material—and despite that, Julianne Moore goes for a more mannered and reserved performance rather than her usual weepy antics. In terms of its subject matter and mood, this is fairly similar to the French 2021 film Everything Went Fine, with both of them proving that films about euthanasia can be surprisingly funny.

DAVID MORGAN-BROWN