It’s probably one of our worst fears: dying alone.
I didn’t particularly like The Room Next Door though it sure it did resonate. It’s the story of two old friends who reconnect just as one of the women is facing a terminal cancer diagnosis. Think ‘Beaches‘, only this film comes from Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother, Talk to Her) and produces way more melodrama, angst and contemplation than tears.
The film is based on the novel “What Are You Going Through” by Sigrid Nunez and has all the hallmarks of an Almodóvar film– long monologues, dark humor, deep colors, poignant silences– though this is his first feature film in English. (Yay- no subtitles!). It stars two powerhouse actresses, Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton as Ingrid and Martha. Ingrid is a successful autofiction novelist (i.e. a genre that blends fictional and autobiographical elements) who writes about a fear of death, and Martha is a former war correspondent who is dying. So there’s a bittersweet irony in play when Martha asks Ingrid to accompany her to a house in the woods where she intends to take a euthanasia pill. Martha wants Ingrid to stay ‘in the room next door’ for what will be a month, at most. Ingrid agrees to be there for her old friend, and the two reconnect while absorbing nature, reminiscing, and discussing the moral, ethical and legal implications of what’s to come.
The 107-minute film is slow-paced and largely dialogue-driven with a few flashback scenes designed to fill gaps from the womens’ time apart. And John Turturro pops up as an old flame of both. And there’s an estranged adult daughter, ’cause well, it’s complicated.
I appreciate what Almodóvar was going for, but I often felt distracted by a real or imagined undercurrent of deception and psychological manipulation, and by an odd casting twist at the end of the film. If your curiosity is piqued and/or you’re a fan of Almodóvar, Moore and Swinton, or read the book, then you may want to put this one in the queue for a quiet night at home when pondering life and death and the ties that bind.
The Room Next Door won the Golden Lion prize for best film at the Venice Film Festival; it starts rolling out in select theaters on January 10.