The Room Next Door

The Room Next Door (Spanish: La habitación de al lado) is a 2024 Spanish drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar in his English-language full-length debut, based on the novel What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez. Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore star with John Turturro and Alessandro Nivola in supporting roles. The plot follows the relationship between two close friends (Swinton and Moore) as the former faces the prospect of ending her life due to terminal illness.
The film premiered on 2 September 2024 at the 81st Venice International Film Festival where it was awarded the Golden Lion, a first for a Spanish film. It was released theatrically in Spain on 18 October 2024 by Warner Bros. Pictures. It won three Goyas (Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score) at the 39th Goya Awards.
Ingrid is a successful author who learns that Martha, a friend with whom she once worked at the same magazine, has terminal cancer. They reconnect at the hospital where Martha is being treated, and Martha tells Ingrid her life story. In the 1970s, Martha became impregnated by Fred, a young man she had met in college. Fred left to fight in the Vietnam War, returning with PTSD. Fred later left and remarried, leaving Martha's daughter Michelle to constantly ask her mother about Fred's whereabouts as she grew up. Wanting to appease her daughter, Martha reached out to Fred's wife, who informed her that Fred had died trying to save a non-existent person whose voices he hallucinated from a house fire. Michelle became resentful of her mother and became estranged. In the present day, Martha has no family, and declares to Ingrid that she recently bought euthanasia pills so that she could secretly end her life.
Initially conflicted, Ingrid accepts Martha's plan and agrees to stay with her for her final moments in Martha's country home. Martha tells Ingrid that Ingrid will know about her death when her door is closed the morning after. One day, Ingrid wakes up to find Martha's door closed, but immediately finds Martha still alive. Initially angered by the fear instilled in her at that moment, Ingrid is told by Martha that it was a test to ensure that Ingrid would be more prepared for Martha's real death.
Ingrid has lunch with fellow writer Damian, who was once both her and Martha's shared lover, and is aware of Martha's plan. Ingrid returns home to find Martha dead on the lawn chair outside, with her bedroom door closed. She finds a note left by Martha thanking Ingrid and asking her to contact Michelle. Ingrid informs the police, who question her claim that she was unaware of Martha's suicide plans. They reveal that Martha had actually asked another friend to join her plan before she asked Ingrid. Ingrid dismisses herself and contacts Damian and the lawyer he preemptively hired for Ingrid.
Ingrid manages to find Michelle and invites her to Martha's country home. They lie together on the lawn chairs outside as it snows.
Almodóvar talked about plans to shoot an English-language film set in New York City on the eve of his trip to the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. The title The Room Next Door was advertised in late 2023. In January 2024, El Deseo announced that Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton had been cast in the lead roles with John Turturro as another cast member. Swinton described the film as "a natural successor, strangely, to Pain and Glory". The film is an El Deseo production with the participation of Movistar Plus+. Filming began on 3 March 2024 in Madrid. Alessandro Nivola joined the cast that same month. Shooting locations also included New York City. On 12 June 2024, Juan Diego Botto, Raúl Arévalo, Melina Matthews, and Victoria Luengo were announced as additional cast members. Edu Grau was the film's cinematographer.
Before filming began, Almodóvar's recurring North American distributor Sony Pictures Classics picked up rights to the film in North America, the Middle East, India, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
The film was released in cinemas in Spain on 18 October 2024 by Warner Bros. Pictures. Warner Bros. also acquired distribution rights for the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, the Nordics, Central and Eastern Europe (excluding Poland), Latin America, and some territories in Asia-Pacific, including Japan. It will be made available on Movistar Plus+ in Spain after its theatrical window.
In July 2024, the film was reportedly likely to premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival; that release was confirmed a week later when the film was announced to be premiering in competition. Alberto Barbera reported that the film was premiering during the festival's second half. The film was also selected for screenings at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival for its North American premiere, and the 72nd San Sebastián International Film Festival as a 'Donostia Award' screening, as well as for the Centerpiece selection of the 62nd New York Film Festival at the Alice Tully Hall on 4 October 2024 (for its U.S. premiere).
The film made it to the 'World Cinema' strand of the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2024 for its South Asian premiere on 19 October 2024. It was scheduled to open in New York City and Los Angeles on 20 December 2024 by Sony Pictures Classics, followed by a limited release in select US cities on Christmas Day, and a January 2025 wide US release.In the United States, it is Almodovar's first ever film rated for a general audience; the MPA gave it a PG-13 rating for “thematic content, strong language, and some sexual references” (all his previous films had been rated R, NC-17, or unrated with admission limited to adults only). Pathé released the film in French theatres on 8 January 2025.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 81% of 190 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Anchored by a pair of terrific performances swathed in vivid colors, Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar's English-language feature debut attests to his universal fluency in provocative filmmaking." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 70 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Stephanie Zacharek of Time wrote that "if it's possible to make a joyful movie about death, Almodóvar has just done it".
Owen Gleiberman of Variety assessed that Swinton "gives a monumental performance", "worthy of comparison to the spirit and virtuosity of Vanessa Redgrave".
Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph lamented that the result of Almodóvar's anglophone feature debut is "depressingly thin".
Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, finding it "as extravagant and engrossing and doggedly mysterious as anything [Almodóvar] has done recently". Also reviewing for The Guardian, Wendy Ide rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, describing it as feeling "emotionally empty".
Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com rated the film 3 out of 4 stars, declaring it "a heartfelt meditation on friendship, grief, and death".