Pedro Almodóvar, one of cinema’s most sensitive dramatists and vivacious stylists, returns with his first English-language film, Golden Lion-winner The Room Next Door, featuring incandescent performances from beloved A-listers Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.
Ingrid (Moore), a famously death-obsessed best-selling writer, rekindles her relationship with her friend Martha (Swinton), a war journalist with whom she has lost touch for a number of years. The two women immerse themselves in their pasts, sharing memories, anecdotes, art, movies; yet Martha has a request that will test their newly strengthened bond.
Almodóvar’s finely sculpted drama is the unmistakable work of a master filmmaker, a hushed and humane portrayal of the beauty of life and the inevitability of death. Adapting Sigrid Nunez’s treasure of a novel, What Are You Going Through, Almodóvar has exquisitely reframed his career-long fascination with the lives of women for an American vernacular, capturing Manhattan and upstate New York with enraptured affection.