It has been years since long-time friends Ingrid, a best-selling novelist, and Martha, a war journalist, have seen each other. Upon learning of Martha’s cancer diagnosis, Ingrid rushes to her side and they rekindle their bond. With each shared memory, including Martha’s recollections of war and of her fractured relationship with her daughter, their connection grows. And a deeply personal request from Martha will bind the two women forever.

The Garden Cinema View:

Not surprisingly, the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival this year was awarded to The Room Next Door, Pedro Almodóvar's first English-language film, an adaptation written by the director himself, of Sigrid Nunez's 2020 novel What Are You Going Through.

Despite the distance from Madrid, Penélope Cruz and el español, this shift to New York retains the quintessence of Almodóvar's cinema. There are few directors who, over such a span of years, manage to maintain such a high-quality, and distinctively emotionally rich, body of work. But what makes us recognise Pedro's touch more than anything else is the vitality of  his films.

This vitality is disruptive in The Room Next Door, a film about death that is, however, a triumph of colour, of light and art, of fashion, of books, and architecture. From the bright green sofa, to the Pantone mugs, from the books (Louise Bourgeois, Caravaggio, Dora Carrington, Dennis Hopper (to name a few that are on the table in one of the scene), to a Cristina García Rodero photograph on the wall, Almodóvar's personal taste is in every detail, filling every scene.

The film touches on many important themes, such as female friendship, respect and acceptance. The Room Next Door is also a political film, a portrait of a woman suffering in a world that is itself suffering, and facing the potential end of life on her own terms.

As viewers, the film is an uneasy but ultimately rewarding journey into ourselves and our own fears. An invitation to reflect upon our place in the world, and also an invocation not to look away but, like Ingrid, to live as witnesses for each other, or in relation to what is happening in the world.

Almodóvar has already announced his next project, Amarga Navidad [Bitter Christmas]. We can only be happy about it.

Cast:
Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton