The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodóvar, 2024, Spain/USA/France)

The Room Next Door is Pedro Almodóvar's first feature-length film in English, and his 23rd film overall. Remarkably, it took so long for Almodóvar to direct a film in English, as it seems almost inevitable that every non-English-speaking auteur will at some point try their hand at it. The results are typically mixed, and oftentimes can result in a misfire - perhaps this is just the natural result of working in a language that you don't have a proper feel for. The Room Next Door is not a misfire, and it manages to feel like a true Almodóvar film.

This is in large part due to the two leading cast members - Julianne Moore as Ingrid, and Tilda Swinton as Martha. Moore and Swinton breathe life into roles that - in lesser hands - might appear quite stilted or unnatural. The film manages to strike a balance between stylization (Almodóvar is indebted here both to Douglas Sirk and a significant extent Alfred Hitchcock) and the real world. In his mid-70s now, it is clear that this film represents Almodóvar's meditation on his mortality. The plot centers around a woman with terminal cancer (Martha) who ropes her author friend (Ingrid) into being in the "room next door" when she commits euthanasia.

Though the film sounds depressing, there is a good deal of warmth and humor throughout. This is added by John Turturro, who shows up in the film as a former lover and friend of both our protagonists. While The Room Next Door is not a masterpiece, it is nevertheless a pleasure to watch, both for its visual sumptuousness (the artificial New York City is quite beautiful) as well as for its strong performances at its core. It will be interesting to see if Almodóvar returns to English-language films.

7/10