Since his international presentation in the late 80s, Pedro Almodóvar has always had the possibility of making a film in English. But true to his style and vision, he did not feel prepared nor did he want to fall into the jaws of Hollywood at the first opportunity. More than four decades after his debut ‘Pepi, Luci, Bom and other girls of the bunch’ and after a couple of short films in preparation (‘The Human Voice’ and ‘Strange Way of Life’), the filmmaker from La Mancha finally launches into the pool with his first feature film in English, with which he won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. ‘The Room Next Door’ is an adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s novel ‘Qué es tu torment’, where two women who have not seen each other for years resume their friendship when one of them finds out that the other is admitted to the hospital with a serious cancer.
Tilda Swinton, already established as an Almodóvar girl after her participation in ‘The Human Voice’, plays Martha, a former war reporter who has just been diagnosed with the lethal disease, while Julianne Moore is Ingrid, a successful novelist.
The way in which Almodóvar portrays this tragedy is slightly different from what one might expect. The filmmaker, so renowned for his great melodramas, is surprisingly austere here, never allowing sentimentality to take over the story (even with the extensive use of Alberto Iglesias’ magnificent score). Something that always works in the film’s favor, since ‘The Room Next Door’ magnifies itself in its most intimate moments, those in which a glance from its excellent actresses is enough to convey all the edges and nuances of the main conflict.
The plot is simple, but on a thematic level it is a very rich film, which extracts, starting from the personal, a powerful sociopolitical discourse. The looming death, present in every second of footage, is portrayed as an inevitable part of life, so a vitalist feeling runs through the film from beginning to end. Almodóvar defends the right to die with dignity, and in that speech, it is perhaps the only moment where he goes slightly overboard with the highlighter. The rest of the time, ‘The Room Next Door’ is a film, although very clear with its ideas and without any intention of ambiguity, wrapped in great discursive and formal elegance.
This is a film that seems to indicate the beginning of a purification of style, although it is unmistakably Almodovarian. In his first feature film in English, the filmmaker has not lost an iota of personality either aesthetically or in his dialogues and characters. Both Martha and Ingrid are two unforgettable protagonists in their universe, and their friendship is one of the most beautiful aspects of an already great script. It is not so common to come across stories of female friendship in adulthood, and that is where Almodóvar finds the true heart of the film. Ingrid understands that the only thing she can do for Martha is spend the time she has left with her, offering her her company, her affection. And she is there, always in the next room (whether figuratively or literally). Both actresses give themselves to their characters with memorable delicacy and sensitivity, perfectly understanding what their director intended. Because the film is, above all, a deeply humanist work about the importance of listening and putting yourself in the shoes of others.
‘The Room Next Door’ is the saddest and most solemn film of Pedro Almodóvar’s career. Also one of the deepest. With a modest staging, with few locations and very few actors, the filmmaker composes an exciting and painful portrait about accepting the end of life.
