Starring: Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, John Turturro, Alessandro Nivola
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Runtime: 107 mins. Reviewed in Jan 2025
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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Ingrid and Martha were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.
After directing two films in English, including The Human Voice with Tilda Swinton, Spain’s most celebrated contemporary director, Pedro Almodovar, has now made his first full-length film in English. It is based on an American novel by Sigrid Nunez. It won the Golden Lion in Venice, 2024, for Best Film.
One of the difficulties for Almodovar aficionados in watching the film is adapting to hearing English rather than Spanish. There were some complaints that the English dialogue sounded stilted. Whatever the complaints, the important focus is on the actresses who deliver the lines and the intensity of their performances.
The film opens with Ingrid (Moore) signing copies of her new book, learning that her friend from the past, Martha (Swinton), is in hospital for treatment for terminal cancer. At first the film works as two friends meeting again, reminiscing about the past, especially for flashbacks to Martha’s teenage years. So far, so expected in a portrait of strong female friendship.
However, the narrative then veers into medical, ethical, moral and legal questions about assisted suicide. Audiences will have a range of views on this topic. One might note that if all there is in this life on earth, then why cannot individuals take their lives at the time they decide. For those who believe in the afterlife, there are many moral questions. And, there is the status of assisted suicide and euthanasia in different parts of the world in terms of legislation and criminality.
All these issues come to the fore but always in the context of the friendship. Martha is a strong-minded woman. There are mistakes in the past, but she finds fulfilment in life as a war correspondent, celebrated, but completely alienated from her daughter who always wants to know more about her father. With some failure in the experimental treatment she is undergoing, she decides that she will end her life.
And, the room next door? Martha rents a spectacular mansion in upper New York state, asking Ingrid to be with her. Not participating in the suicide itself, but assisting in making the last days of Martha’s life days of content. Ingrid is quite emotional, hesitant at first, fearful of death, going along with Martha’s plans, but needing some kind of outlet, a sympathetic trainer at the gym, the reappearance of an old flame Damian (Turturro) who has strong views on everything.
And, there is the plan for dealing with the police, denying knowledge, set answers, legal support. There is an unsympathetic police investigation by Alessandro Nivola. Almodovar wants the audience to appreciate the issue, the emotions, the moral issues, personal responsibility and independence.
However, for the average audience, while this important issue is dramatised on screen, the setting is very affluent. Healthcare and drugs are available, the comforts of wealth and a mansion to die in, not the ordinary experience of most moviegoers, an important issue but in another world of which they will never be part. And, as expected, the final scenes will leave the audience confirmed in beliefs about assisted suicide or challenged ethically, legally and morally.
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