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The Room Next Door Movie Review

The Room Next Door is a 2024 drama film directed by Pedro Almodovar and starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. It’s an underappreciated Almodovar movie.

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“I’ve completely lost faith in people doing the right thing“

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Ingrid and Martha became close friends while working together at the same magazine. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in a strange situation – Martha wants to end her life and she asks Ingrid to help her out. This is the first ever English-language movie from the director and it’s one of his most underrated efforts. Most criticized it for being artificial and lifeless, but I would argue that its strange and meditative mood perfectly accompanied its central theme of life, death and controlling your own faith.

This movie is all about our natural human urge to be in control not just of our life, but also of our death. You, of course, cannot really decide when you will die, but you can surely influence how you meet your end. As somebody who experienced the death of a closed one, I related with Martha’s decision to go on her own terms and in a very dignified way.

This is an unusually dark and somber picture from the usually much lighter filmmaker that is surely Almodovar, but it still ended with his signature touch – a sense of serenity, humanity and even optimism. I loved that ending as it was both very moving and emotionally earned, but the casting decision of Tilda Swinton playing the daughter as well paid off significantly and lent that conclusion a lot of heart.

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I really liked Swinton here. She was very moving and memorable. Moore was perfectly cast as her caring friend and the two shared a lovely dynamic between each other. Yes, some of their lines of dialogue were a bit too standard and lazy, but for the most part I really enjoyed listening to their deeper discussions of life and death along with their more casual conversations about art, literature and cinema.

What I did not like was that detective storyline in the third act. Not only was it entirely unrealistic, but it was just pointless. This man was so adamant to accuse Ingrid of murder that he was behaving in a very unprofessional and rude way. I found him to be so annoying. All of this would have fared better if more screen time was given to this plot point, but eventually it was all just that – an unnecessary, implausible plot point.

The Room Next Door isn’t the most technically advanced Almodovar flick, but it does have his signature use of color as symbols. The cinematography is lovely and the production design is naturally terrific. The house looked so unique. There is also the majestic score from Alberto Iglesias that lent the whole premise a more sinister, classical feel in the vein of Hitchcock. The whole movie is sumptuous and so well executed, though the pacing could have been stronger and the dialogue should have been more sophisticated.

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