Cinema outing –
Almodóvar does not leave his comfort zone
“The Room Next Door” addresses the theme of assisted suicide in a bohemian New York environment. With the excellent Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.
Published today at 9:29 a.m.
Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, two friends in “The Room Next Door”.
Pathé
Subscribe now and enjoy the audio playback feature.
BotTalk
- Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore star in the film “The Room Next Door”.
- The film addresses the theme of assisted suicide.
- Almodóvar received the Golden Lion for this minor opus in his career.
Over the years, most important authors reach a maturity which allows them or gives them the time to tackle major themes. By that I mean serious matters. That of assisted suicide is one and is at the heart of “The Room Next Door”, new Almodóvar film. Which brings together an author of autofictional novels, Ingrid (Julianne Moore), who lives in Manhattan and reconnects with her friend Martha (Tilda Swinton), who has terminal cancer.
According to their memories, the past resurfaces and the time of assessment arrives. Until the day Martha asks Ingrid to accompany her to a house, in the heart of a nature reserve, a house she has chosen as her final resting place, since she has chosen to resort to a deadly medication unearthed on the darknet.
At this point you will find additional external content. If you accept that cookies are placed by external providers and that personal data is thus transmitted to them, you must allow all cookies and display external content directly.
Allow cookiesMore info
Beautiful apartments, art books, selected music. Nothing is missing from the aristo-bobo decor which forms the daily life of the two friends. Not even a painting by Hopper, which the two women discover in the villa, wondering if it is a real one and whose motif will become a sort of metaphor for what awaits them. Clichés die hard, and Almodóvar does nothing to avoid them, abandoning this provocative freedom of tone which was at the heart of his first films.
In “The Room Next Door”, he delivers an exemplary copy, strives to be fair and to compose characters for whom he feels empathy, but we remain on the surface of a demonstration that is more smooth than shocking. and a little easy in what she says. The film does not in fact maintain any real links with today’s world; its two characters are cut off from it, in an autarchy that the choice of their voluntary exile will further underline.
New York in the snow.
Pathé
That said, the result is not really open to criticism. And would at worst be seen as a minor opus in Almodóvar’s career if he had not won the Golden Lion in Venice, during the last Mostra. The first award obtained by the Madrilenian in a category A festival, this comes almost a bit late (but it is never too late) in a career where great films have long followed one another without interruption. As if we had wanted, through this film, to repair previous oversights, by offering the filmmaker a prize of strictly honorary value.
Rating: **Drama (Spain – 110′)
Did you find an error? Please report it to us.
0 comments
