Toronto Film Festival 2024 Reviews: “The Room Next Door” & “Eden”

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THE ROOM NEXT DOOR (Sony Classics – Dec. 20):  Pedro Almodovar’s first English-language feature is in keeping with his recent, more contemplative films (Pain and Glory, Parallel Mothers), but it’s even more restrained than those.  Based on a novel by Sigrid Nunez, it’s virtually a chamber piece for two actresses, Tilda Swinton (who’d previously starred in the filmmaker’s English language short The Human Voice) and Julianne Moore.  The story is straightforward:  Swinton plays Martha, a famous war correspondent who has terminal cancer.  She’s decided to take a pill that she acquired via the dark web to end things before they become too ugly, and while she doesn’t need assistance, she’d like companionship in her last days.  She settles on Ingrid (Moore), a successful novelist and old friend, although they haven’t seen a lot of each other recently.  After some initial reluctance, Ingrid agrees, and Martha rents them a beautiful house in upstate NY for a few weeks.  Almodovar has solo credit for the script, and especially in the early going, it seems to betray his lack of experience in writing English-language dialogue, clunky and laden with awkward exposition.  Once the women are sharing the house, however, The Room Next Door finds some room to relax.  As one would expect, the world-class actresses give impeccable performances, sensitive and moving, although the roles don’t rank with the performers’ most enthralling.  (The only other character of any size is played by John Turturro, as a man who’s been involved with both women at various times, and who becomes Ingrid’s confidante.)  Almodovar’s film is carefully shot (by Eduard Grau, who was DP on the lovely Passing) and designed (by Inbal Weinberg, whose work includes The Lost Daughter), with tasteful music by Alberto Iglesias.  It has craft to spare, and insights to offer about the reactions people have to impending death.  It doesn’t, however, offer many of the exuberant, twisty pleasures Almodovar’s pictures typically provide.  Whether this was because the director felt it was required by the seriousness of the subject matter or due to his unfamiliarity with the language is unclear.  In any case, while The Room Next Door is admirable and worthwhile, it may be the only Almodovar film to feel like self-conscious “Oscar bait.”

EDEN (no distrib):  Has Ron Howard ever made a scripted feature without a studio attached?  He’s the epitome of Hollywood reliability–even his flops, like In the Heart of the Sea and Rush, are slick and professional.  The idea of an “indie” Ron Howard seems like a contradiction in terms.  Eden, the film that’s emerged, has Howard’s typical gloss, with handsome photography by Mathias Herndl (who’s mostly worked in TV), convincing production design by Michele McGahey, and a score by Howard’s old colleague Hans Zimmer.  The cast, too, is up to Howard’s usual standards, an ensemble that includes Jude Law, Daniel Bruhl, and a trio of actresses currently at or near the top of Hollywood’s A-list:  Sydney Sweeney, Vanessa Kirby, and Ana de Armas.  If the studios have been put off, it must be because of the strange-but-true story detailed in Noah Pink’s script.  In the late 1920s, Friedrich Ritter (Law) and Dora Strauch (Kirby) left Germany for an uninhabited island in the Galapagos.  They were philosophically convinced that mankind was headed for disaster and best abandoned, and also thought the new locale could cure Strauch’s multiple sclerosis.  They endured several difficult years–the island had little fresh water, and soil that was difficult to cultivate.  But they were alone, and that’s what they wanted.  However, Ritter was sending accounts of their adventure to German newspapers via passing boats, and the Wittmers (Bruhl, Sweeney) and their son showed up, attracted by the exciting spin the papers have put on the articles, and much to the disgust of the island’s founders.  As sadistically as Ritter and Strauch try to sabotage the family to get them to leave, the interlopers have confounding success as settlers.  Things really get crazy with the arrival of a self-described Baroness (de Armas) along with a pair of male assistants she maintains essentially as sex slaves.  She announces that she’s going to build a luxury hotel on the island’s beach.  Dark comedy and serious violence result, more or less confirming Ritter’s opinions about humanity.  Eden is thoroughly enjoyable pulp, with big performances by just about everyone (Sweeney gets an especially bravura sequence) that suit the melodramatic material.  Even with his version of a freak flag flying, Howard may not be temperamentally capable of fully embracing the wildness of his tale, but the dynamic between that story and his instinct toward well-made filmmaking is fascinating in itself.  While far from fine art, Eden has as much vitality as anything Howard has ever made.