The subtle art of dying

FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING HIS CAREER from the start, the idea of Pedro Almodóvar's growing older—and using his films to reflect on illness and death—is a bitter pill. None of us relishes thinking about our own mortality. But sometimes it feels worse to think about losing an artist we love. One of his finest, most moving works, 2019's Pain and Glory, reckoned with the nuisances of aging and the trauma of being an artist in crisis. But his first English-language movie, The Room Next Door, delves further into these murky waters. Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton star as Ingrid and Martha, old friends who have been out of touch for a long time. They reconnect when Ingrid learns that Martha is being treated for cancer, and their rekindled friendship veers into complicated territory.

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Almodóvar adapted the screenplay from Sigrid Nunez's 2020 novel What Are You Going Through, and at first the movie's tone feels untethered to genre. It's a story about friendship, but also about a difficult choice. The dialogue sometimes feels flat. And even if Almodóvar goes for a laugh here and there, the tone is largely somber. And yet, by the end, something almost mystical has happened: the movie ushers in a kind of glittering twilight.

Ingrid, a successful writer, first hears of Martha's illness at a book signing. She dutifully visits, and they catch up quickly. Martha, a former war correspondent, has a daughter, born when she was still a teenager; the two aren't close, which Martha regrets. Her illness—Stage III cervical cancer—puts a new spin on things. She's hoping an experimental treatment will work; she's devastated when it doesn't.