November 25, 2025
FILM: SENTIMENTAL VALUE
DIRECTED BY: JOACHIM TRIER
STARRING: RENATE REINSVE, STELLAN SKARSGARD, ELLE FANNING
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Sentimental Value opens with a series of shots that move closer and closer to the exterior of a home before taking us inside. In any neighborhood, there are houses with stories that, in some cases, may go back over a hundred years. The home in this case becomes a character in the film. We learn that it has been full of life, pain, noise, silence, good times, and some heated arguments. It’s also cracking, as is shown on both its exterior and interior walls. This is the Norwegian home that the Borg family has lived in for generations but its current members have been fractured and emotionally distant from one another. Over the course of the film we see how some of the events that occurred in the home effected relationships and family dynamics.
Stellan Skarsgard plays Gustave, a film director who is attempting to make a comeback while a retrospective of his movies plays in France. He’s written a script that he wants his daughter Nora (Renate Reinsve), an actress currently appearing in a staged Chekhov play, to star in. When we first meet her, she is having a major anxiety attack seconds before one of her performances is about to begin. Not long after, everyone, including her sister Agnes, is gathered in the house for their mother’s wake. Gustave walks in and upon seeing the number of people there, enters into an empty room and closes the door. These scenes set up a link between Nora and Gustave suggesting they are both troubled by something related to their pasts. Most importantly, there is a distance between the two of them that is so severe Nora declines to appear in the film Gustave has written even though he created it for her. What follows is a brief period in which Gustave finds a Hollywood actress, Rachel Kemp, played by Elle Fanning, to take over the role with a planned shooting of the film in the family home.
Details about the past of the family are revealed fairly early on, including the suicide of Gustave’s mother in the house decades earlier. Clearly, he is still disturbed by this and its effects have pushed their way into Nora’s psyche and, to a lesser extent, that of her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas.) The film is sharply focused on a number of family related themes including mental illness and emotional/social distance. While Gustave may be making a seemingly half-hearted attempt to repair his relationship with Nora (he refuses to see her work on stage though) Nora is less inclined to take equally necessary steps toward a reconciliation.
There’s another generation featured in the film illustrated by Agnes’s young son. He’s energetic and loving and has a great relationship with Nora. Does this suggest that family troubles are learned and caused by the environment (or house) or has the boy not yet displayed the issues that have seemingly plagued the family for several generations now? Does he represent the cycle finally be broken?
The awareness of aging is also present as a means to repairing personal fractures. Gustave visits the home of his former cinematographer because he wants him to shoot his new film. He stares at him befuddled once he sees the man now walks with a cane. Would he really be able to do the work Gustave wants for the film? Is this his first realization that he himself has already professionally peaked and that his best years are behind him? His dwindling number of days may be even more of a reason to fix his relationship with Nora.
Thematically, the film poses some of these questions for us to consider and we’re given plenty of time to do so because many scenes are very quiet and, in some cases, lagging. With the exception of the opening shots showing us the history of the home as it has aged and housed families over time, most of director Joachim Trier’s work here doesn’t offer a lot of cinematic bells and whistles. It’s not as visually dynamic as other key films released this year but it does emphasize personal despair in effective ways. As such, some audiences may be left wondering what all of the fuss has been over the film, which won the Grand Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The actors are very good though, especially Renate Reinsve and Elle Fanning who both reveal layers to their complex characters. Oscar voters may be interested in throwing support for Stellan Skarsgard though who has never previously been nominated. I don’t think the performance is to quite up to that level but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where the awards attention for the film goes this year.
This is the kind of movie that recalls introspective Swedish films by Ingmar Bergman or the director whom he influenced, Woody Allen. The latter’s Interiors features a similar family of artists dealing with a suicidal mother and complicated personal relationships. (There’s also a flashback scene in Sentimental Value in which characters hear conversations through a vent, something which Allen portrayed in his film Another Woman.)
In the end, this is a film about exorcising old wounds and coming to terms with a family’s long-term social and emotional issues. If you are ready for that this Thanksgiving week, check it out.
Sentimental Value is now playing in theaters.
FILM: SENTIMENTAL VALUE
DIRECTED BY: JOACHIM TRIER
STARRING: RENATE REINSVE, STELLAN SKARSGARD, ELLE FANNING
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Sentimental Value opens with a series of shots that move closer and closer to the exterior of a home before taking us inside. In any neighborhood, there are houses with stories that, in some cases, may go back over a hundred years. The home in this case becomes a character in the film. We learn that it has been full of life, pain, noise, silence, good times, and some heated arguments. It’s also cracking, as is shown on both its exterior and interior walls. This is the Norwegian home that the Borg family has lived in for generations but its current members have been fractured and emotionally distant from one another. Over the course of the film we see how some of the events that occurred in the home effected relationships and family dynamics.
Stellan Skarsgard plays Gustave, a film director who is attempting to make a comeback while a retrospective of his movies plays in France. He’s written a script that he wants his daughter Nora (Renate Reinsve), an actress currently appearing in a staged Chekhov play, to star in. When we first meet her, she is having a major anxiety attack seconds before one of her performances is about to begin. Not long after, everyone, including her sister Agnes, is gathered in the house for their mother’s wake. Gustave walks in and upon seeing the number of people there, enters into an empty room and closes the door. These scenes set up a link between Nora and Gustave suggesting they are both troubled by something related to their pasts. Most importantly, there is a distance between the two of them that is so severe Nora declines to appear in the film Gustave has written even though he created it for her. What follows is a brief period in which Gustave finds a Hollywood actress, Rachel Kemp, played by Elle Fanning, to take over the role with a planned shooting of the film in the family home.
Details about the past of the family are revealed fairly early on, including the suicide of Gustave’s mother in the house decades earlier. Clearly, he is still disturbed by this and its effects have pushed their way into Nora’s psyche and, to a lesser extent, that of her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas.) The film is sharply focused on a number of family related themes including mental illness and emotional/social distance. While Gustave may be making a seemingly half-hearted attempt to repair his relationship with Nora (he refuses to see her work on stage though) Nora is less inclined to take equally necessary steps toward a reconciliation.
There’s another generation featured in the film illustrated by Agnes’s young son. He’s energetic and loving and has a great relationship with Nora. Does this suggest that family troubles are learned and caused by the environment (or house) or has the boy not yet displayed the issues that have seemingly plagued the family for several generations now? Does he represent the cycle finally be broken?
The awareness of aging is also present as a means to repairing personal fractures. Gustave visits the home of his former cinematographer because he wants him to shoot his new film. He stares at him befuddled once he sees the man now walks with a cane. Would he really be able to do the work Gustave wants for the film? Is this his first realization that he himself has already professionally peaked and that his best years are behind him? His dwindling number of days may be even more of a reason to fix his relationship with Nora.
Thematically, the film poses some of these questions for us to consider and we’re given plenty of time to do so because many scenes are very quiet and, in some cases, lagging. With the exception of the opening shots showing us the history of the home as it has aged and housed families over time, most of director Joachim Trier’s work here doesn’t offer a lot of cinematic bells and whistles. It’s not as visually dynamic as other key films released this year but it does emphasize personal despair in effective ways. As such, some audiences may be left wondering what all of the fuss has been over the film, which won the Grand Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The actors are very good though, especially Renate Reinsve and Elle Fanning who both reveal layers to their complex characters. Oscar voters may be interested in throwing support for Stellan Skarsgard though who has never previously been nominated. I don’t think the performance is to quite up to that level but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where the awards attention for the film goes this year.
This is the kind of movie that recalls introspective Swedish films by Ingmar Bergman or the director whom he influenced, Woody Allen. The latter’s Interiors features a similar family of artists dealing with a suicidal mother and complicated personal relationships. (There’s also a flashback scene in Sentimental Value in which characters hear conversations through a vent, something which Allen portrayed in his film Another Woman.)
In the end, this is a film about exorcising old wounds and coming to terms with a family’s long-term social and emotional issues. If you are ready for that this Thanksgiving week, check it out.
Sentimental Value is now playing in theaters.