The Room Next Door Movie Review

If you like Pedro Almodóvar movies, such as, “Volver” and “Parallel Mothers,” this film “The Room Next Door,” a Spanish drama, written and directed by Almodóvar, is his first English-language film which is based on the novel by Sigrid Nunez, titled, “What Are You Going Through?” The book was about suicide and was published during Covid. Nunez included humor in her writing. That is certainly missing in the film. It is very heavy and reasonably dark.

​

The premise in this dialogue-heavy film is intriguing but seems not to go where you think it will. What you imagine is crisis overload, which is there to a degree, but when the story is unraveled, you expect more to happen. You get to know Tilda Swinton’s, Martha, who has stage three, non-operable, cervical cancer. And we meet her friend, Ingrid, played by Julianne Moore. They haven’t seen one another in a long time. They easily pick up where they left off. However, their getting back together is rushed and feels contrived because the reason certain things must be resolved quickly.

Reason? Martha needs her friend to spend time with her as she considers suicide… even kind of help her complete the task. Ingrid is an author who’s afraid of death, but a writer of it. She doesn’t want anything to do with her friend’s plan, but agrees to be with her, to prove something to herself if nothing else.

She can grow, even though she wrote in a book, to better understand and accept death, that she can’t accept that “something alive has to die.” From what you can tell, the living relationship Martha once had with her daughter died an early death. This is covered well, and you want to feel sorry for the frigid woman, but you’re certain Martha’s daughter not liking her is Martha’s own fault.

You’re not allowed to kill yourself in this country. You’re also not allowed to let someone kill themselves. If you know about this is about to happen, you must alert the authorities. Ingrid doesn’t do this so if it’s known she’s helping in any way, she’s breaking the law. Ingrid isn’t this type of person so she’s surprising herself. And then, Martha. She is testing a new therapy that can keep her alive longer, if it works, but she doesn’t see anything good about that. Nothing has gone well in life with her daughter, with her relationships and now she has cancer? Why live?? On the dark web, you can find anything. She finds a pill that will end her life… and she will use this pill when she has had enough.

Ingrid understands this and it’s agreed upon. Martha is to live to the fullest, with Ingrid, until she has had enough mentally.

Some scenes are clunky. It’s an important issue, whether someone should have the right to end their lives or not, but told in this way, no one is going to get that from this story. Religion or government makes the point not to be involved in the taking of your life, right? Why? This would have been a good question to ask, but this doesn’t ask questions. It’s too slow, the director often doesn’t seem confident, surprisingly, so I wasn’t totally absorbed.

The ending of her life wasn’t all encompassing as it could have been, but instead trivial, something you’ll wish it had not been. The concept was so fascinating, but should have come from different perspectives, not just from someone whining.