Movie Review: An estranged father reconnects in ‘Sentimental Value’

After bringing us one of the best films of 2021 with The Worst Person in the World, Joachim Trier is now back with Sentimental Value. It’s film that doesn’t particularly reinvent the wheel with its story or themes, but it elevates familiar material through great execution.

Already receiving a ton of praise and hype since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this past May and other various festival screenings, Trier might just have given movie fans an essential viewing for both the holiday season and awards season.

Following the sudden death of their mother Sissel, sisters Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes Borg-Pettersen (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) reunite with their estranged father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), who returns to Oslo, Norway, for the first time in decades since divorcing Sissel. As adults, Agnes is a fulltime mother and wife who chose to forgive and forget Gustav’s abandonment. Nora is a popular stage actress having an affair with a married stagehand, Jakob (Anders Danielsen Lie), and resents her father for choosing his career over the family.

Gustav, a once respected filmmaker, attempts to reconnect with Nora by writing the lead in his final film for her to play. Elle Fanning co-stars as a Hollywood starlet who ends up replacing Nora in Gustav’s film, while interludes about the Borgs’ century-long history with their house are interspersed between scenes.

Sentimental Value marks the third collaboration between Trier, Reinsve, Andersen Lie and Trier’s screenwriting partner Eskil Vogt, and features dialogue spoken in both English and Norwegian. For as much has been noted on Luca Guadagnino’s recent After the Hunt being inspired by Woody Allen’s style and direction, I felt there was a lot of Allen DNA in Sentimental Value as well, most clearly his family focused pictures like Interiors (1978) and Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). Of course, this might not be a surprise since as a Scandinavian, Trier would be aware of legendary Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, who directly influenced Allen’s dramas.

Unsurprisingly, all the performances of Value are as brilliant as critics and pundits have been applauding for months. Reinsve and Skarsgård are the emotional powerhouses opposite Lilleaas and Fanning as the straight, collected women to level out the tale’s tone. The actresses in particular stand out with three of the strongest performances of the year. Reinsve is effortlessly neurotic, Fanning genuinely charming, and Lilleaas a primary revelation as the least famous and experienced co-star who pulls off playing the responsible younger sister/daughter who holds the family together.

Along with Trier yet again showing off his skill and versatility as a visionary director with an ear for solid soundtracks, Sentimental Value is an instant recommendation from me.