Start the week with a film: A colour-coded final exit in ‘The Room Next Door’

Spanish master Pedro Almodovar tackled the themes of ageing and death in his 2019 film Pain and Glory. The Room Next Door, adapted from Sigrid Nunez’s novel What Are You Going Through, Almodovar contemplates the possibility of self-erasure in the face of a debilitating illness – but in his trademark style.

Martha (Tilda Swinton) is determined not to let cancer defeat her. Martha rents a villa and persuades her old friend Ingrid (Julianne Moore) to stay in the room next door – to bear witness, in a manner of speaking, when Martha takes her own life.

Understandably hesitant at first, Ingrid goes along with Martha’s plan. The film explores the time spent by the two women together, during which they revisit their past lives and debate the rationality of Martha’s decision.

The Room Next Door can be rented from Prime Video, Apple TV+ and BookMyShow Stream. The lack of drama in the storytelling hews closer to Almodovar’s more recent works than his earlier, rambunctious films.

While The Room Next Door isn’t as compelling as Almodovar’s previous films, it’s still an unusual exploration of euthanasia. The unhurried, old-fashioned drama that includes dream-like elements makes a potentially morose subject as pleasing to the eye as possible.

Almodovar’s first English-language feature has the colour-coded compositions and impeccable symmetrical sets typically found in...

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