The Room Next Door review: "Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore excel in this haunting drama"

Oct. 7, 2024

The deserving winner of Venice’s Golden Lion Award, Almodóvar’s discourse on death is teeming with life.

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Pedro Almodóvar fans may be wrongfooted by the writer/director’s first full-length English-language feature, an atypically austere entry in his canon that’s nevertheless as vivid and haunting as much of his other work.

Adapting Sigrid Nunez’s novel What Are You Going Through, Almodóvar examines friendship and death via two reconnected ex-colleagues: successful author Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and war correspondent Martha (Tilda Swinton). Martha is battling stage-three cervical cancer and wants a ‘good death’, so asks her friend to accompany her to an upstate New York rental for reading, relaxing and, ultimately, euthanasia, using a pill sourced on the dark web.

The women recall their past (including their romantic dalliances with John Tuturro’s eco-warrior), explore their relationship to mortality, and cherish the wonder of life. Watching these interactions, viewers will doubtless feel compelled to engage in their own bouts of self-reflection.

The only real misstep is in Swinton playing her character’s lookalike daughter, which feels odd when her younger self is embodied by a luminous Esther McGregor. But in a film exploring the concept of legacy, it’s a conceit that doesn’t overly impact on the overall richness of the material.

The Room Next Door is released in UK cinemas on October 25.

For more, check out our guide toupcoming movies.

Jane Crowther is a contributing editor to Total Film magazine, having formerly been the longtime Editor, as well as serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the Film Group here at Future Plc, which covers Total Film, SFX, and numerous TV and women’s interest brands. Jane is also the vice-chair of The Critics' Circle and a BAFTA member. You’ll find Jane on GamesRadar+ exploring the biggest movies in the world and living up to her reputation as one of the most authoritative voices on film in the industry.

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