“The Room Next Door”, his first film in English, with Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton. An admirable staging contrasts with a sometimes repetitive script, and with moments of little subtlety.
New York, a bookstore, a hospital in Manhattan, then a quiet house north of the big city. There, two rooms. In one is Martha, deathly ill, but still clear-headed. In another, her friend from old times, ready to accompany her in the last days. They chat, they remember, they reflect, they also laugh.
This is what the New Yorker’s novel tells us Sigrid Nunez (ex Nunez) that Pedro Almodovar led to the cinema as “The room next door”a sort of Hollywood play and melodrama, but from the Hollywood of old, that of the great actresses and the films that, after filling the downtown cinemas, were replenished again and again in the neighborhood cinemas, and that their audience, mostly feminine, I watched with the handkerchief in my hand and with total fascination, for the cast, the dresses, the environments, the music, the dialogues, and the elegance with which the characters faced the bitter part of life.
Following that model, which he always loved, Almodovar has filmed this story where everything – or rather, almost everything – is worthy of admiration, from the performances of Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton and the music of the teacher Alberto Iglesias even the snowflakes that fall gently when appropriate, and every corner of the house, which seems to have been taken from an architecture and decoration magazine. The staging is beautiful. The dialogues, not always.
There is sometimes a tendency to reiterate, to “lower the line” (the same thing happens in the novel), and a creaking artifice, as well as some occasional flashbacks, perhaps unnecessary. Luckily, such annoyances are not enough to upset the person who is closely following the drama of these women and discovers with admiration the strength of their friendship, and the courage of one of them to decide her own destiny beyond the laws, something that Almodovar explains with medium subtlety.
In the distribution, John Turturro, Juan Diego Botto, Raúl Arévalo. Among the many references, allusions and quotations scattered here and there, Ingmar Bergman (the memory of “Screams and whispers”), John Huston (her beautiful swan song, which here was called “From now and forever”based on “The dead”of Joyce) and the box Andrew Wyeth “Christina’s World”. There is a very interesting, revealing, even emotional analysis of that painting, easy to find on YouTube. It is worth keeping in mind.
A separate consideration: this is the first feature film that Almodovar does in English. Let’s hope it’s the last one. And one fact: the novel by Sigrid Nunez (daughter of a Panamanian Chinese) is titled “What are you going through?”something like what is happening to you?, and it was published in Spanish as “What is your torment?”. Another book of his, “A friend”was also made into a movie, with Naomi Wattsa Great Dane and Bill Murray. One of the three dies.
“The room next door” (Spain, 2024); Dir.: Pedro Almodóvar; Int.: Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, John Turturro, Juan Diego Botto, Raúl Arévalo.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
