Opening in theaters November 7 is ‘Sentimental Value,’ directed by Joachim Trier and starring Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Anders Danielsen Lie, Cory Michael Smith, Catherine Cohen, and Elle Fanning.
SO4o5XBnKgqinZKwG76S07Related Article: ‘A Different Man’ Tackles Issues of Identity with Compassion and Humor
Initial Thoughts
Easily one of the best films of the year, ‘Sentimental Value’ is Joachim Trier’s follow-up to 2021’s ‘The Worst Person in the World,’ a character study disguised as a bittersweet rom-com. ‘Sentimental Value’ is also bittersweet, but it’s no romantic comedy: instead, it dissects the complicated relationship between a narcissistic but aging filmmaker and his two daughters in the wake of their mother’s death.
‘Sentimental Value’ gets at some universal truths about all families, parents, and children, and presents each of its four main characters in nuanced shades, letting us see them at their best and not so finest. While the film might be too casually paced and narratively loose for some, this is ultimately a rich, engrossing, deeply moving tale of what happens when family becomes fodder for art, and everything that spins out of that.
Story and Direction
Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård) is a once highly-regarded filmmaker whose best years are behind him and who hasn’t been able to get a film financed for 15 years. He returns to his family home in Oslo, Norway for the funeral of his ex-wife, where he attempts to reconnect with his two daughters, actor Nora (Renate Reinsve) and her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) who has a more stable job as a historian and a husband and child.
But Gustav is also after more than just re-establishing the tattered relationship he has with the two daughters he left behind: he has written a new film – apparently an incredible script – and wants Nora to star in it. However, she wants nothing to do with the film or her father. Thanks to a fortuitous meeting, he instead enlists a young American star named Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning). With Rachel attached, Netflix comes calling – but something about the entire project feels off.
Through a string of beautifully composed scenes, Joachim Trier (working from a script he co-wrote with Eskil Vogt) slowly peels back the layers of each of these characters, revealing the multi-dimensional people at the heart of a very intimate story about how the compulsion to create art can be both healing and disruptive. We find out that Gustav’s script is about his mother, who survived Nazi atrocities only to take her own life in the very home in which he wants to film – a personal expression of anguish he’s held all these years. But the screenplay is also about his daughters, and as we find out more about them, we learn that this family has been shattered in multiple ways.
All this is eloquently and elegantly shot in gorgeous Oslo, with the Borg house at the center of the story both a place of stability and a ghost from the past. With warmth, some sly humor (mostly poking fun at the movie business), and a story that lays bare some raw emotions while not providing easy solutions, ‘Sentimental Value’ is an engrossing drama that makes one want to spend more time with the Borg family.
Cast and Performances
All four leads in this film are impeccable, starting with the great Renate Reinsve and the global treasure that is Stellan Skarsgård. Coming off ‘The Worst Person in the World’ and last year’s ‘A Different Man,’ Reinsve once again displays her ability to make the work of acting literally invisible, while fully inhabiting the character she portrays. Nora is complicated and troubled – she is an exceptional actress but has extreme anxiety attacks before going onstage – and unable to get everything in her life lined up, but also possessed of charm, wit, and an underlying darkness that is hinted at but perceptible.
As for Skarsgård, this may be the Swedish veteran’s masterpiece: Gustav is also charming, talented, and witty, but possessed of a high self-regard, a condescension toward others, and an almost childish temper. A scene in which he visits his one-time cinematographer, only to realize that the man might be too old to work anymore, is acting perfection: just with the subtle expression on his face, Skarsgård shows us both Gustav’s disappointment and fear – he’s seeing his own potential future. And underneath his still-cocky surface lies a deep grief – which he is unable to express without a camera. This is brilliant, Oscar-worthy stuff all the way.
Credit also to Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as the practical sister from whom Nora is somewhat estranged as well, but who still has a deep love for both sibling and parent, and Elle Fanning (having a heck of a fall with this and ‘Predator: Badlands’), whose Rachel Kemp exhibits depth and sensitivity that, in a lesser film, would be replaced by a simple Hollywood brat.
Final Thoughts
Joachim Trier keeps mining everyday human relationships for maximum complexity while presenting his stories with an easygoing clarity that’s hard to not enjoy. ‘Sentimental Value’ continues that tradition, and while it’s ironically not sentimental at all, it’s still deeply moving in its understanding of how grief and sadness can be both fodder for great art and fuel for slow self-destruction.
‘Sentimental Value’ receives a score of 95 out of 100.
What is the plot of ‘Sentimental Value’?
The fractured relationship between an acclaimed director and his two estranged daughters becomes even more complicated when he decides to make a personal film about their family history.
Who is in the cast of ‘Sentimental Value’?
- Stellan Skarsgård as Gustav Borg
- Renate Reinsve as Nora Borg
- Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as Agnes Borg Pettersen
- Elle Fanning as Rachel Kemp
- Anders Danielsen Lie as Jakob
- Cory Michael Smith as Sam
- Catherine Cohen as Nicky
- Andreas Stoltenberg Granerud as Even
List of Stellan Skarsgard Movies and TV Shows
- ‘The Hunt for Red October’ (1990)
- ‘Breaking the Waves’ (1996)
- ‘Insomnia’ (1997)
- ‘Good Will Hunting’ (1997)
- ‘Amistad’ (1997)
- ‘Ronin’ (1998)
- ‘Deep Blue Sea’ (1999)
- ‘Timecode’ (2000)
- ‘Dancer in the Dark’ (2000)
- ‘Dogville’ (2003)
- ‘King Arthur’ (2004)
- ‘Exorcist: The Beginning’ (2004)
- ‘Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist’ (2005)
- ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ (2006)
- ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’ (2007)
- ‘Mamma Mia!’ (2008)
- ‘Angels & Demons’ (2009)
- ‘Melancholia’ (2011)
- ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ (2011)
- ‘Thor’ (2011)
- ‘The Avengers’ (2012)
- ‘Thor: The Dark World’ (2013)
- ‘Cinderella’ (2015)
- ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ (2015)
- ‘Our Kind of Traitor’ (2016)
- ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’ (2018)
- ‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’ (2018)
- ‘Chernobyl’ (2019)
- ‘Dune’ (2021)
- ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ (2022)
- ‘Andor’ (2022-2025)
- ‘Dune: Part Two’ (2024)
- ‘Sentimental Value’ (2025)
