We take a look at what is being said about Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film, starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore.
The Guardian: **** “It’s a lovely, mordant, tender affair; a lush September song in duet, performed with aplomb by Swinton and Moore as they stroll the secondhand bookstores or lounge by the pool they can’t be bothered to swim in. The film becomes richer and truer the more Martha and Ingrid re-establish their friendship so that the shut door and end credits leave us feeling bereft. That tends to be the way with every good story and probably with every worthwhile relationship, too, because flesh fails, the clock ticks and it is always later than we think.”
Variety: “Pedro Almodóvar, at 74, is no Spanish fatalist, but his films have become increasingly haunted by death. That’s why the comedy in them has mostly been burned away. Yet I would argue that this has not made him a downbeat artist. “The Room Next Door,” as driven by the scalding humanity of Swinton’s performance, lifts you up and delivers a catharsis. The movie is all about death, yet in the unblinking honesty with which it confronts that subject, it’s powerfully on the side of life.”
Screen Daily.com: “Where the film will eventually stand in Almodóvar’s canon remains to be seen, but it is a substantial achievement from a director who has managed to leave his linguistic comfort zone while remaining entirely, inimitably himself. “
The Hollywood Reporter: “Swinton and Moore imbue the movie with heart that at first seems elusive, along with the dignity, humanity and empathy that are as much Almodóvar’s subjects here as mortality. What ultimately makes the movie affecting is its appreciation for the consolation of companionship during the most isolating time of life.”
Deadline: ” A Room Next Door is a thoughtful, vital, even radiant film. With any luck, it may even have helped Pedro Almodóvar feel better about things.”
The Telegraph: ** “Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton star as two old friends in a euthanasia drama that feels more middling Woody Allen than on-form Almodóvar.”
Screen Rant:”There is more to dig into (namely the many artistic references, especially to James Joyce’s The Dead), but perhaps not quite as much as it feels like there should be. Martha’s past, her daughter’s estrangement, Ingrid’s fear – all of these elements should add up to more than they do. There is greatness in The Room Next Door, but it comes in pieces, not a unified whole. It is an interesting film, and well worth seeing, but perhaps not all that was hoped for from Almodóvar’s English-language experiment.”
The FT: *** “The film gets better as it goes along. Moore in particular brings a welcome warmth to the screen as the empathetic Ingrid, bolstered by the gentle presence of John Turturro, playing an ex-lover of both women who is now obsessed with the ravages of climate change. But mostly this is a two-hander, Swinton and Moore bedding in for a moving final act in verdant upstate New York.”