The Room Next Door (12A)

Pedro Almodóvar’s first English language feature is an intimate sketch of female friendship and the philosophy of death.

Successful novelist Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and war correspondent Martha (Tilda Swinton) have recently reconnected over tragedy. Martha is battling stage-three cervical cancer and wants a 'good death', so makes the kind of request only a true friend can fulfil: accompany her to an upstate New York rental for reading, relaxing and, ultimately, euthanasia, using a pill obtained over the dark web. While there, the two women recall their past (including their romantic dalliances with John Tuturro’s eco-warrior, Damian), explore their relationship to mortality, and cherish the wonder of life.

The drama plays out brilliantly into its black comedy elements. Martha is excited about this trip and has found peace with death. This kind of gleeful melancholy, mixed with Ingrid’s unease, produces several darkly hilarious moments. The two lead performances are phenomenal, as to be expected from Moore and Swinton. They are friends who, despite drifting in and out of each other’s lives, genuinely and deeply care for one another.

Thought-provoking, slight but ultimately elegant, The Room Next Door is lower key Almodóvar but unquestionably beautiful.