Screened at the Virginia Film Festival, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value details the story of dysfunction. The film follows an actress named Nora and her sister Agnes, who have a tumultuous relationship with their father Gustav. Gustav is a director working on a new film and wants his daughter Nora to be the lead. At her refusal, Gustav goes to different measures to get the film made.

Light and Darkness 

The film starts out giving a backstory into the lives of Nora and her family. The details began with the relationship with her mother and father, and how they were madly in love, spanning to a tumultuous divorce and a house that binds them all. The film describes the home as lighter as Gustav leaves to continue his pursuit of directing in Sweden, abandoning his daughters. From this point on, the film focuses on Nora, a stage actress well on her way in her career, while her father is still actively pursuing directing and is on the move for his next film. His next film details a key factor in which he wants Nora to play the lead. During a lunch that they have, she expresses her refusal to star in the film, showing that no matter how great the script is, she could not stand to be in his presence.

Where the film succeeds is in showing moments throughout the story that are tight-knit and hold a certain amount of value to the overall narrative that works beautifully. The film feels as though it is split into bits detailing certain moments to move the story ahead. They are beautifully edited and should not be taken for granted, as they have a decadent cadence. Another thing that is important to note is that at the epicenter of the film is the family home that they own. There is an unfortunate passing that takes place early in the film; that is where and why the house plays such a pivotal role throughout the film, as it marks growth and regression through strength and peril.

Casting Greatness

Sentimental Value is a performance piece that says every character in this film was vital to the narrative, and everyone excelled. Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter, Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning all gave great performances and worked well together in various scenes. Skarsgård’s role was the most theatrical in the film as Gustav. Aside from abandoning his daughters, Gustav is rude and inappropriate. In the moments where he is not being a nuisance, he is a dedicated director, and that is the best part of him at his core in the film.

Reinsve, who plays Nora, does an amazing job showcasing immense levels of pain. Throughout this film, viewers see the parallels between her and Gustav play out, which are not nuanced but exceptionally detailed. In these moments, no matter how much she dislikes him, she knows that there is greatness that precedes him. The thing with Nora is that aside from the hatred from her father, she is dealing with her own issues that span from his abandonment. It shows up in how she dates and how she emotes around others. This in itself is reminiscent of Trier’s previous film, The Worst Person in the World, where Reinsve was the lead. The difference here is that she’s not in the film as much, and there isn’t much for her to do that others in the film cannot do due to how gung-ho she is when it comes to being in Gustav’s presence. The thing that is striking about Reinsve’s performance and role in this film is that she is not in the film as much as one would think for her as the lead. While she is the main objective for Gustav’s project, there really isn’t much else there outside of the abandonment issues that really work in Reinsve’s favor.