After experimenting with short form in 2020’s The Human Voice and 2023’s Strange Way of Life, Pedro Almodóvar has finally delivered the first English-language feature in his illustrious career, The Room Next Door. The film might provide answers to what long-time Stateside devotees may have been wondering since the ’80s. Does Almodóvar translate well? These are valid questions considering how some arthouse favorites, like Wong Kar-wai, have faltered in directing English scripts. Starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, The Room Next Door should perform well in the usual festival and arthouse circuits. Given Almodóvar’s established penchant for melodrama and that the subject is euthanasia, the film is strangely aloof. It never reduces the proceedings to Lifetime territory or patronizes moviegoers in the process. It does, however, leave you to wonder a bit about the indifference you might ultimately come away with yourself.

What Is ‘The Room Next Door’ About?

Martha (Swinton) has stage three cervical cancer. At a book signing, Ingrid (Moore) first learns of Martha’s diagnosis through a mutual friend. They apparently have known each other for quite a while and once worked at the same magazine, but had fallen out of touch when Martha worked overseas as a war correspondent. Ingrid promptly visits Martha in the hospital where she undergoes experimental treatment. The script by Almodóvar is deeply knowledgeable about cancer symptoms and treatments, surely a welcome surprise for those who have lived through the complications. But Swinton’s acting rarely matches her sickly makeup or verbal descriptions of the ailments.

Anyway, Ingrid vows to visit Martha regularly. At some point, the treatment proves ineffectual and the pain intolerable, prompting Martha to quit altogether. She plans an upstate getaway – and her own suicide using a pill purchased on the Dark Web – and requests Ingrid’s presence. Since everyone else Martha has approached has seemingly declined, Ingrid agrees, but only after much deliberation as one would expect. Yet when they briefly return to the city to look for Martha’s deadly tablet, Ingrid doesn’t hesitate to hand it over as soon as she finds it. The film doesn’t tell us whether Ingrid wishes to end Martha’s suffering or has simply resigned herself to the inevitable.

Has Almodóvar Always Been Like He Is in ‘The Room Next Door’?
Image via Pedro Almodóvar

Based on Sigrid Nunez’s 2020 novel What Are You Going Through, The Room Next Door seems unusually verbose for Almodóvar. Scene after scene, it feels as if it’s an adaptation of a play instead. Another thing that sticks out here is how much he relies on the pretty pedestrian shot-reverse shot. This may spur curious fans to revisit part of his filmography just to see whether his Spanish-language work has always been like this and we’re just now noticing. The only scene where the direction gets really interesting is during Ingrid’s session with a personal trainer, in which snippets of her feet jumping on and off a step stool have been spliced in.

This time Almodóvar has set his sights on New York City. Thankfully, that part feels authentic and lived-in. Locals will recognize from the opening frames cultural landmarks like Rizzoli in Flatiron and of course Film at Lincoln Center, where most every single movie of his has passed through the projection booths. New York cinephiles will love him for that hat-tipping alone.

That said, The Room Next Door is still unmistakably Almodóvar. The production design by Inbal Weinberg is insane. It’s only a matter of time before blogs like Curbed and Apartment Therapy start buzzing about how to acquire Martha’s turquoise sofa and emerald green cabinetry, because those interior décor inspirations are frankly life-changing, and even good money will probably not get them for you from Design Within Reach or ABC Carpet & Home. As with many New York-set pop-cultural staples like Friends and Sex and the City, though, The Room Next Door grossly underestimates the ridiculous cost of local real estate. It matters in the sense that New Yorkers – who likely make up the vast majority of Almodóvar’s core audience in the U.S. – will reflexively jump to the conclusion that these characters are all loaded, what with their million-dollar apartments. Don’t even get me started on the upstate vacation rental.

Almodóvar is loved for his unforgettable characters and magnificent leading ladies. That won’t be the case here, despite employing such celebrated actresses as Swinton and Moore. A spoiler – albeit an inconsequential one – is that Swinton shows up much later as Martha’s estranged daughter, Michelle. Despite sporting a radically different ’do, Swinton’s physical performance isn’t discernibly different. Perhaps unintendedly, though, the lack of duality in Swinton only helps bolster Moore’s otherwise understated turn.

The Room Next Door had its World Premiere at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.