For much of his career, gay filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar has written original screenplays for the movies he’s directed.
There are a few occasions, including “Julieta” (which is based on three Alice Munro short stories) and “Live Flesh” (based on a Ruth Rendell novel). “The Room Next Door” (Sony Pictures Classics), based on a Sigrid Nunez novel, is the latest in that category. In addition to being based on outside source material, “The Room Next Door” is Almodóvar’s first feature film in English.
At a Rizzoli bookstore signing for her new book in New York, writer Ingrid (Julianne Moore) encounters an old friend waiting in the line. The friend tells her that their mutual friend Martha (Tilda Swinton) is hospitalized with stage three cervical cancer. It’s inoperable, but Martha is receiving an experimental treatment with better-than-expected results.
When Ingrid goes to see Martha, they both seem genuinely happy to see each other, and slowly pick up their friendship where they left off. The interactions between the women have a distinctly Almodóvar-esque quality, and in the scene where Martha talks about her adult daughter Michelle, it feels even more so that way.
In a flashback (another Almodóvar device), we are introduced to Michelle’s father Fred (Alex Høgh Andersen), a Vietnam vet who isn’t ready to settle down with the pregnant Martha and raise a family. Tragically, he dies when Michelle was 12, never having met his daughter.
As their friendship continues to become close again, they share personal details. Ingrid tells Martha about her next book project, a novelization about the relationship between painter (Dora) Carrington and gay writer Lytton Strachey. Martha shares an unpublished story from her war journalist days involving the reunion between her gay photographer Martin (Juan Diego Botto) and a Carmelite priest in Baghdad. In this way, “The Room Next Door” maintains the feel of an Almodóvar picture, but with the characters speaking English.
Martha, whose treatments are no longer effective, asks Ingrid for the ultimate favor. She has secured a euthanasia pill on the dark web and wants to end her life. Martha asks Ingrid to accompany her to a house she will rent in Woodstock where she plans to end her life. She doesn’t want to implicate Ingrid, so they devise what sounds like a foolproof plan. In the house, they will stay in separate rooms, and on the day that Ingrid sees the door to Martha’s room closed, she will know that she has passed.
There are many complications along the way, including Ingrid’s secret friendship with Damian (John Turturro), a man with whom both women were romantically involved during the 1980s. There are also emotionally overwhelming scenes between the two women that, once again, bear the Almodóvar trademark.
Swinton and Moore are simply perfect in their respective roles. Almodóvar gets praiseworthy performances out of both women. Turturro, whose character gives an impassioned diatribe about the effects of overpopulation on climate change (talk about timely!), is also outstanding. The only possible complaint is the appearance of Michelle at the end of the movie. No spoiler here, you’ll have to experience it for yourself to see if you agree.
Rating: A-
