Pedro Almodóvar makes extravagant melodramas about people whose feelings are difficult to live with. We value their warmth and unease, though his sympathy can be too generous and, in The Room Next Door, his dialogue too explanatory.
Fi1m perspective
In Talk to Her (2002), the physiotherapy makes us attend to bodies that need care and cannot answer back. We were moved by that practical tenderness, and troubled by how much freedom it gives the carers to speak for the women. Almodóvar lets us understand the appeal of being needed before asking how well these men understand the people they tend. It is the kind of discomfort he handles well.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) brought wider attention to a director whose films favour bold colours, irreverent humour and elaborate plots. His gift for complicated female characters is central to All About My Mother (1999). The more personal Pain and Glory (2019) belongs to a later, more restrained phase. That turn towards quieter films is not an automatic improvement.
The friendship played by Javier Cámara and Darío Grandinetti gives Talk to Her its warmth, though Almodóvar can be too ready to excuse the men. José Salcedo’s measured editing gives us time to register each feeling, keeping the improbable story from becoming a rush of incidents. Alberto Iglesias and Vicente Amigo’s music is effective, though the physical care stays with us longer. Even the silent-film fantasy earns its place through bodily comedy and distress. The weakness is how little chance the women get to object.
The Room Next Door (2024), his first English-language feature, shows what happens when too much is said aloud. Julianne Moore conveys fear through her hands and breathing, only for the script to spell out what she has already shown. Tilda Swinton’s plain, level delivery gets through, but the conversations keep their written stiffness. This is thoughtful work that holds us at a distance.
Inbal Weinberg’s production design supplies a mid-century house that suits Almodóvar’s symmetrical framing. Cinematographer Eduard Grau keeps the colours strong and the contrast high, so the look remains recognisable even as the language changes. The rooms work; the people are too often required to explain themselves. Start with Talk to Her, and keep questioning the men however tenderly Almodóvar treats them.
Biography
Pedro Almodóvar is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer. He was born on 25 September 1949 in Calzada de Calatrava, Ciudad Real, Spain.
He founded the production company El Deseo S.A. with his brother Agustín Almodóvar, who has produced most of his films. Almodóvar wrote and directed The Room Next Door (2024), his first English-language feature film. He is also credited as a producer on Sirāt (2025).
His other notable films include Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), All About My Mother (1999), Talk to Her (2002), Volver (2006) and Pain and Glory (2019).
