The Room Next Door review: Tilda and Julianne are impeccable in debut English film for legendary Spanish director, writes BRIAN VINER By Brian Viner Published: 18:55 EDT, 24 October 2024 | Updated: 19:03 EDT, 24 October 2024 e-mail View comments The Room Next Door (12A, 106 mins) Verdict: Timely and engaging Rating: With the current brouhaha over assisted dying, and MPs due to vote next month on whether to legalise it in the UK, the great Spanish director and screenwriter Pedro Almodovar has chosen a burning-hot topic for his first English-language feature, The Room Next Door. It's a decidedly highbrow film, with lots of literary and philosophical chat. But then euthanasia is a lofty subject, and in any case the picture is saved from any threat of pomposity or dreariness by a pair of impeccable performances from Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore .
I saw it last month at the Venice Film Festival , where it understandably won the main prize,the Golden Lion. Martha (Swinton) and Ingrid (Moore, both right) are old friends who have lost touch but reconnect when Ingrid hears that Martha is dying of cervical cancer . Martha is an illustrious war correspondent, semi-estranged from her daughter, her only child.
Ingrid is a writer, too, who is working on a book about the artist Dora Carrington. Tilda Swinton as Martha and Julianne Moore as Ingrid in the Room Next Door Julianne Moore as Ingrid and Tilda Swinton as Martha Years earlier the two of them were colleagues on a trendy magazine,.