- Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, John Turturro
- October 25th 2024
- 107
- Pedro Almodovar
Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore play former friends and colleagues who reconnect after one of them becomes sick.
After releasing two English-language shorts, Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar makes his full-length debut with The Room Next Door.
The drama, which won the Golden Lion for best film at the Venice Film Festival, stars Julianne Moore as the best-selling writer Ingrid. After years of being out of touch with her former close friend and colleague Martha (Tilda Swinton), she reaches out and connects with the war correspondent after she hears about her health diagnosis.
The biggest drawback with The Room Next Door is Almodóvar’s screenplay. He is known for melodrama so realistic writing can’t be expected, but the dialogue here is still very stilted.
You often don’t feel like you’re watching a natural conversation because they talk at each other, state the obvious, and tell each other things they should already know. It felt unnatural and performative, like they’re in a play.
Almodóvar goes into next-level melodrama mode in a couple of flashbacks, which felt unnecessary and awkwardly placed in the film.
However, The Room Next Door is still a compelling watch because of Moore and Swinton. They wrangle the artificial dialogue with gusto and don’t let it hold them back from giving strong performances, even if their characters are thinly written. Given how much they like to talk, you think you’d come away knowing them better!
You might expect this to be a dark and serious film given the morbid subject matter but it doesn’t wallow in sadness – there is a vibrant colour palette as well as plenty of light-hearted, humorous moments and thought-provoking conversations about life and death.
Also, Martha is very pragmatic and practical about her situation and this stops the film from becoming emotional or sentimental.
The Room Next Door could have been completely let down by its false-sounding dialogue but Moore and Swinton easily make up for it by acing their performances yet again. It’s a testament to their skills that they didn’t let the script drag them down.
In cinemas from Friday 25th October.
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