Winner of the Golden Lion at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, Pedro Almodóvar’s first English feature, The Room Next Door, it a frustrating film. With talents such as Almodóvar, Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton all working together on a singular film, I sadly found myself surprised by how undercooked and shallow this film is.
On paper, The Room Next Door, has a fascinating and relevant story. Ingrid (Julianne Moore), reconnects with her old friend, Martha (Tilda Swinton) after hearing about her cancer diagnosis. Months go by and Martha’s cancer has metastasized, giving her months to live. In her act of defiance, she wishes to commit euthanasia with Ingrid, who is terrified of death, at her side in the room next door.
For a film that is centered on ending ones suffering and the inevitability of death, The Room Next Door keeps death as far away as possible. Martha is dying from cancer and wishes to end her suffering before the cancer gets her. Yet that suffering, is missing. Martha is obviously mentally distressed from her cancer diagnosis, beautifully portrayed by Tilda Swinton, but the physical suffering is nowhere to be found. We don’t see the physical pain and destruction that cancer does to someone. This suffering is one of the reason people become attracted to euthanasia, to end their suffering, and it is tragically absent.
Furthermore, Ingrid’s fear of death is absent in the film. Julianne Moore tries her hardest to bring this fear into its screenplay, but it doesn’t come into fruition as her character is focused on Damien (John Turturro). Despite a good performance from Turturro, his character adds nothing to the narrative. He is never utilized to help Ingrid navigate her fears as the narrative instead choses to use him as a political mouthpiece on climate change. His character is jarring and out of place in the narrative.
The Room Next Door wants to explore our gift of mortality, but wants to keep it outside of the house instead of the room next door. It is ironically afraid of its theme of death, which leads to a thematically hallow film. Which is a tragedy because The Room Next Door is a confidently made film with some great performances and great individual scenes. However, it chooses to hide from its thematic exploration. If you wish to see a film or series explore the inevitability of death, go watch a film by Mike Flanagan.
My Rating: C+
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