Review: The Room Next Door
The Latest From Iconic Director Pedro Almodóvar
INTRODUCTION
This is a quick review of the newly released film The Room Next Door. Keep in mind this is but one of the many movies I watch every year, and that whatever initial grade I come up for this film could change for better or worse with time. To better keep up to date with both my thoughts on other movies and if my feelings on this film changed, follow me on Letterboxd.
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THE PLOT
Via Letterboxd: Ingrid and Martha were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. Ingrid went on to become an autofiction novelist while Martha became a war reporter, and they were separated by the circumstances of life. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.
QUICK REVIEW
I’ll never be accused of being a Pedro Almodóvar fanboy. His films, for me, have ranged from like to really like, but I can’t say I’ve fallen HARD for his movies. But the man does have an iconic and impactful filmography, so I was nevertheless intrigued to see what we’d get from him with The Room Next Door - which just so happens to be his first feature-length english narrative film, and starring both Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton at that.
During the first twenty minutes or so of this film, I started to understand some of the criticisms I’d read regarding its dialogue, cadence, and pacing. It begins so abruptly that I almost felt like I was watching a straight-to-Netflix release. However, if you approach it as an English-language telenovela and embrace Almodóvar’s signature style, it becomes much easier to set those concerns aside and focus more on the story and characters.
In true Almodóvar fashion, the film weaves drama with moments of comedic relief, even within a narrative involving a woman asking another for help in deciding whether to end her life. As I mentioned earlier, if you allow yourself to flow with the tonal shifts, the experience becomes far more rewarding.
The film offers a fascinating, if occasionally quirky, exploration of mortality and the passing process. The conversations between the two protagonists drew me in, revealing who they are as women and presenting their debates over this grim situation in a way that never felt repetitive, even when revisited multiple times. John Turturro’s supporting role also stood out, with his character’s melancholic reflections feeling particularly poignant in a post-2024 election world.
At its core, the film is a deliberate, well-paced meditation on grief, death, and the act of living - even when it feels like there’s nothing left. The way the story wraps up is handled with precision and grace, avoiding any sense of overstatement in how it addresses the aftermath of the central events.
All in all, The Room Next Door exceeded my expectations. It’s a thoughtful, meditative exploration of existential themes that manages to avoid becoming overly heavy. I genuinely enjoyed it and would give it a solid initial grade of B+.
INITIAL GRADING
