Pedro Almodóvar arrives in Venice with his first English-language feature after making initial forays with the shorts The Human Voice and Strange Way of Life, the latter a disappointing and shallow work; the former a more interesting monographic piece starring Tilda Swinton.
Swinton also stars in The Room Next Door as Martha, an erstwhile war reporter dying of cervical cancer. When her old friend Ingrid (Julianne Moore), a successful novelist, hears the news, she rekindles their friendship. This film can certainly not be accused of superficiality: it tackles huge themes such as death, euthanasia, climate change, the religious right and the politics of division.
