After years of being out of touch, old friends Martha (Tilda Swinton) and Ingrid (Julianne Moore) meet again in extreme yet poignant circumstances. Martha is terminally ill and has chosen to take her own life; she asks Ingrid to accompany her to a secluded cabin in upstate New York, where she will act as the person in the room next door on the day Martha chooses to be her last.

Essentially a two-hander, with support from John Turturro, who plays Damian, ex-lover to both women, the film is suffused with Almodóvar’s signature stylistic elegance and represents again his uncanny ability to elicit captivating performances.

The elegiac mood, typical for this period of the director’s career, is exemplified by his use of Joyce’s The Dead, the final passage of which features prominently.

Notes by David O’Mahony.