The Room Next Door Review

The harsh reality of life is that, unfortunately, death is inevitable. Eventually, our time on this earth will run out. Some can live long and prosperous lives but sometimes life can be cruel, and health can affect how long we get to experience Earth. Cancer affects one in two people and in 2022 alone 9.7 million people died of cancer worldwide. It is inherently cruel and affects so many people. However, The Room Next Door ponders can people who are suffering from cancer dictate how their life ends and live their remaining time to the fullest. It also compares the battle with cancer with the horrors of war as well as if humanity is the cancer of earth.

We follow Ingrid (Tilda Swinton), a war journalist, has cancer. Even though they haven’t seen each other in years. Ingrid rushes to be with Martha, and their friendship blossoms once again. While discussing Martha’s daughter and her past in wars, Martha asks Ingrid a deeply personal request that changes everything: Martha wants to end her own life, and she wants Ingrid to be in the room next door.

The film tackles the topic of euthanasia (the practice of ending the life of a patient to limit the patient’s suffering) with Martha, she wants to end her life on her . We see that she struggles with the treatment, as the chemo eats away at her both physically and mentally with no positive results in sight. Instead of continuing the suffering of the treatment and potentially dying in pain, she wants to end her life when she is at the happiest and go on her . It is a very serious topic that I feel is approached with the correct level of sensitivity to the topic.

It goes even deeper than that comparing the battle of fighting cancer to the horrors of war. We see this with the characters of Fred and Martha. Fred is Martha’s lover as a teenager and after returning from Vietnam is not the same. As stated in many films dealing with PTSD, for Fred, the war never ended, and they are a shell of the people we knew before their time on the front lines. You could apply this to cancer treatment.: how it affects Martha and her appearance and mind is harrowing, seeing her talk about how she has lost interest in writing or reading due to chemo brain is utterly depressing.

Swinton and Moore allow the themes that are explored to be expertly conveyed and to be truly believable. While some of the line delivery can be a bit shaky, throughout the entire film they have chemistry together that is rich and wonderful, and every time they smile or kiss each other on the cheek, you truly believe they are these characters. For Pedro Almodóvar’s first feature in English, he does an impressive job bringing this story to life.  As mentioned before, the shakiness in the delivery could be linked to Almodóvar’s direction but can be forgiven due to this being a first English language title and how masterfully he blends serious moments with surprising moments of levity.

The Room Next Door will not be for everyone. It is a heavy film that has a lot to say about a serious subject but when the credits rolled, I could not help but be enamoured by what I was watching. It is a fascinating film with two incredible leads and certainly a one-of-a-kind film.

★★★★

Played as part of the 2024 BFI London Film Festival / In UK Cinemas from October 25th / Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Alessandro Nivola / Dir: Pedro Almodóvar / Warner Brothers Discovery / 12A