Venice 2024: Tilda Swinton & Julianne Moore’s ‘The Room Next Door’
by Alex Billington
September 3, 2024
“His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe…” The beloved Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar is back once again at the 2024 Venice Film Festival with his latest feature film titled The Room Next Door. Officially it is his first-ever entirely English-language feature-length film (though his two shorts recently The Human Voice and Strange Way of Life were also English). This doesn’t really change much except that his usual exceptionally fast Spanish dialogue has been replaced by somewhat slower English dialogue. Though when that dialogue is spoken by two irrefutable masters of acting, Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, there’s really nothing to worry about. They each know how to handle their roles precisely and gracefully, taking us along on an endearing story starring as two old friends. The Room Next Door is actually quite different from many of Almodóvar’s previous films, which is why many viewers won’t be into as much, while others may find themselves more connected with what he has come up with this time.
The Room Next Door is both written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, and takes place mostly in New York City until the two friends move to a beautiful cabin in the woods somewhere in upstate New York. It’s based on the novel “What Are You Going Through” by Sigrid Nunez, although it seems to be less of an adaptation and more of an “inspired by” reference. Julianne Moore stars as Ingrid, a successful novel writer who has just published her latest book, which is about death and how afraid of it she is. While in NYC, she’s told that her old friend Martha, played by Tilda Swinton, has cancer and isn’t doing well. So she visits her and they reconnect and begin reminiscing about life – about the past and present. Martha then tells her about a plan and invites Ingrid to participate in this plan despite her initial hesitation, and off we go with them as they embark on a trip up into the woods to a stunningly beautiful, massive, expensive cabin. As is always the case with Almodóvar, the set design is spectacularly colorful and inviting, and the cinematography is sumptuous and warm. This always makes every Almodóvar so watchable and approachable no matter what the story is.
As far as I can tell from this film, it seems that Almodóvar is grumpy & frustrated at the world but still made a beautifully angry elegant film about appreciating the magic & goodness of friendship no matter how dark it gets out there. It’s an especially poetic and rather simplistic film (at least compared to the more complex & twisted narratives in his other films) that features a handful of great “we’re so fucked” lines but twists the expected depression into happiness and joy at the end of life, as death approaches. The focus is entirely on Tilda Swinton & Julianne Moore’s humble friendship. Strangely, though it is a relief to see every once in a while, there’s no big twists with their relationship that are revealed. No she betrayed her, or this was a lie, or actually this or that. The more time they spend together, the more they really respect and love each other. It feels like something Almodóvar himself experienced in real life while reconnecting with an old friend, and the warmth of that friendship brought him great joy in the midst of his concerns with the world going to shit and people getting older & dying. We need more joy & more empathy no matter what’s going on in our lives.
One final note is that the film’s narrative is mainly about Martha dying, but it also seems to be a metaphor for climate change. There are multiple conversations about climate change and how humanity is awful and how we can’t stop what is coming. But it’s about how we shouldn’t be all doom & gloom about this, we must live as happily as we can as long as we can until the end comes. It’s getting mixed reviews and some critics seem to be missing this point? I quite like that it seems Almodovar had a revelation in the last few years and started to recognize the world dying and had to grapple with that by making such a sweet new movie about friends. I’m glad he tried something different, I’m happy that he still wanted to show us a world filled with beauty and goodness in it. This might be a nice film to recommend to viewers who aren’t exactly the biggest fans of Pedro Almodóvar already, though I do think with more time and a rewatch, these existing fans will warm up to it more. There’s no denying the lovely performances from Swinton & Moore make it worthwhile.
Alex’s Venice 2024 Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing
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