Sentimental Value

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★☆ (3.8/5)

Rated: M

Directed by: Joachim Trier

Written by: Eskil Vogt

Produced by: Maria Ekerhovd and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar

Starring: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning.

Viewed in Norwegian with English Subtitles

‘Ready?’

The opening shot of Sentimental Value is an overview of the film, if it can begin again: a daytime pan of the city, the birds are chirping, the soundtrack is hopeful, to then view a cemetery.  Then a house, a beautiful house.  A quiet place.

The house is part of the story.  A way to hold the pieces of this family: the two sisters, Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes Borg (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas); and the famous director, Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård), an absent father.

In an interview, actress, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas states the house, is, “a beautiful way of connecting past generations with the present because a house can function as a constant and a caregiver in your life — it’s a nurturing force,” says Lilleaas. “Maybe it’s just a house but it holds so much in your life that you weren’t present for, containing in its walls the vibe of everything that was and maybe everything that will be.”

Agnes played by Inga is a stay-at-home mum, with a loving husband and a beautiful son.

Nora, played by Renate Reinsve, is a renowned stage actress.

But Nora panics before going on stage.  It’s a feeling familiar.  She has to snap out of it.  Light up the stage.  She says she’s eighty percent fucked up.

A movie of perspectives, Sentimental Value shows the point of view of Nora as she walks onto stage, facing the audience.  So the viewer, we the audience, can see the applause, can feel the applause.

When their father returns to the house, at the wake of their mother, Gustav wants to talk.  He has written a script.  A script he wrote for Nora.

But Nora can’t.  She doesn’t want anything to do with him.  He’s too difficult.

In steps American actress, Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning).

It’s a film of broken relationships, the fluctuating emotions; the hurt that keeping taking over.

Director Joachim has returned with the same writer (Eskil Vogt) and actors from his previous film, The Worst Person in the World (2021): a film I enjoyed far more than I thought I would.

The Worst Person in the World is a not-romance that’s, ‘sexy, clever, sad and poetic,’ and for me, a relatable personal take on life.  Renate Reinsve won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival and a BAFTA nomination for her part as Julie.

Here, the mood is sombre.  Stellan Skarsgård as Gustav bringing gravitas to his role yet the story is about fragility.

Instead of a personal journey, this is about family, relationships.

And I believed every bit of it.

There’s a focus of the subtleties of how people communicate.  To show acting that doesn’t ‘feel right’ when famous actress Rachel Kemp takes on the role in Gustav’s new film, takes a heavy amount of talent, because in the audience, I could feel the ‘not right’.

There’s a consistent subtle adjustment to the temperature of the film set to the tone of Nora’s world so the film starts as this intense panic, to a slow down to build the story of the relationships to an emotional arc that brings the hope back at the beginning.

A thought-provoking film that takes you right along with it.