The Room Next Door seems to be the forgotten film that won the Golden Lion at Venice this year. However, with strong performances, a vivacious colour palette and sincere themes, it certainly deserves to re-enter the cinematic zeitgeist. Almodóvar’s first English-language film opens with Ingrid (Julianne Moore), an author releasing her latest book, On Sudden Deaths. As she is signing books she confesses that she struggles to accept something with life has to die. Later on, she finds out that an old friend Martha (Tilda Swinton) has stage three cervical cancer, which is incurable. The film follows the friends reuniting with conversations of catching up as they reveal more about their lives, careers, and loves.
As the two friends get closer again, the shroud of death looms large as Martha gets hold of a self-euthanising drug, to which she asks Ingrid to be with her, not in the room, but in the room next door, to keep her company on a holiday two hours upstate of New York. The film is full of wisdom and reflection, as Martha confesses she swings between euphoria and depression, Almodóvar aims to take a journey into the complex mind of a terminally ill patient whose fate is already sealed. Martha is a person who seems so prepared to leave the world, yet is so vacantly observant of its beauty
Throughout Almodóvar strikes a rich tapestry of emotions creating a concoction of rich and layered characters. The film is often bleak, never shying away from the conversation of Martha’s state, referencing her life in the past tense, this is often a saddening and lonely picture, despite there also being an overwhelming appreciation of life. Almodóvar has a great grip on our emotions, like Martha, we swing from joyous euphoria to grappling with depression. Often taking the perspective of Moore’s Ingrid, we struggle to come to terms with Martha’s acceptance of death, with the claret door of her room noted as a sign of her life status, there is an anxious tension throughout much of the drama.
However, it is also steeped in melodrama, it is much more a conversation of their past lives, an earnest reflection, than the progressive nature of many scenes in contemporary film. The Room Next Door is not trying to progress the characters to give the perspective, rather they are reflecting on their past, as they are trapped in their ageing vessels only heading in one direction. It is the sort that pays homage to the films of Douglas Sirk and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, or more recently a film like Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth, an engrossing, peaceful film that puts you under a spell. It is a film that feels long, but not in a bad way, rather in a way that you could be part of Almodóvar’s bright and glorious world forever.
Whilst this is Almodóvar’s first film in the English language it is still very clearly within his authorial catalogue. Both within the melodrama and the positive figures of women, but also stylistically, with the trademark use of bright and bold colours filled in both costuming and production design, bringing a unique vibrancy to the melodrama rather than the more realistic and muted shades that have become commonplace, the film has an unparalleled way with colour. Matching this bold style is a score that is grand and overbearing, tracks that overlay dialogue feel like they belong to the battles of war, creating an atmosphere that heightens everything that plays on screen.
Indeed the dialogue is full of wisdom and intriguing conversation. The film is full of pondering questions to ask the audience, such as how to say goodbye and whether creating art can rid us of the troubles and fears that artists write about. The dialogue deals quite literally with the subject of death, at one point Julianne Moore states “I’ve practically held death in my hands, I never imagined it would be so light”. Whilst these moments feel slightly on the nose, there is nevertheless an engrossing sincerity. Almodóvar also ties in the death of the individual with the death of the world, discussing the impact of climate change, the corruption of people of power and an incoherent society. It is a film about finding a way to live inside a tragedy.
Whilst the dialogue can be at times on the nose, Almodóvar has a great skill in creating beauty in even the most mundane things. Although not its best, The Room Next Door is nevertheless a powerful melodrama with star performances by two of the best actresses of our time. It is a film that borders the lines of realism which can be jarring; however, this is done with great sincerity.
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