Film Review: Sentimental Value
The Latest Film From Joachim Trier
INTRODUCTION
This is a quick review of the newly released film Sentimental Value. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.
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PLOT
Via Letterboxd: Sisters Nora and Agnes reunite with their estranged father, the charismatic Gustav, a once-renowned director who offers stage actress Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film. When Nora turns it down, she soon discovers he has given her part to an eager young Hollywood star.
REVIEW
With me about to become a “girl dad” this upcoming Spring, this has been a year of film where movies about fathers and their kids have only hit harder for me. One Battle After Another in particular got under my skin and made me truly understand the dynamic of a father trying to protect his daughter. Now we get another “girl-dad-coded” entry in Sentimental Value, from Danish filmmaker Joachim Trier; a director critics have adored throughout his career, even as the wider public has been slower to catch on to his work. That seems to be changing now, as Trier follows up his 2021 critical darling, The Worst Person In The World, with a film generating serious awards chatter; not just as a Best Picture contender, but one that might even have a shot at the win itself.
As someone who has generally respected Trier’s past work more than loved it, I walked into this unsure how I’d ultimately feel. Living in the market I do, these festival films that generate awards buzz take their sweet time reaching me, and while waiting I kept hearing the same thing from fellow critics and die-hard cinephiles: - that this is one of the best films of the year. You can’t help but be aware of that buzz going in; but the most fair approach is to watch the movie for what it is first, and analyze the rest of the noise later.
Well, having finally seen it, I can report that Sentimental Value really might be one of the best films of the year; though I wouldn’t place it as high on my list as many others clearly have. Still, in a year packed with stories about parenthood, familial bonds, and generational trauma, this one stands apart in how it dissects strained relationships and inherited emotional wounds.
At least on paper, this is meant to be a story about a man desperately trying to reconnect with his daughter by making a film about his own trauma through his complicated relationship with his mother. And credit where it’s due; both Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas do strong, subtle work as Gustav’s daughters. Reinsve, in particular, perfectly captures a woman shaped by abandonment; how her father leaving fractured not just her family, but the way she moves through the world and her relationship to art and filmmaking. Lilleaas brings something different, playing a younger sister who’s more willing to forgive, while awkwardly navigating the emotional crossfire between her dad and sister.
That said, I walked away seeing this as Stellan Skarsgård’s movie. I responded so strongly to Gustav’s arc as an elderly artist nearing the end of his life, haunted by a lifetime of regrets, still trying to push himself creatively while scrambling to reconnect with the family he walked away from decades earlier. I’d genuinely be shocked if anyone else had more screen time; because to me, this felt like his journey, his reckoning, his meltdown, and maybe even his redemption.
There’s a moment when Gustav visits an old cinematographer friend, an artistic collaborator he hasn’t spoken to in years, and he’s visibly shaken by just how much time has aged them both. It’s in those micro-scenes of realization, the quiet punches, where the movie hit me the hardest.
When Gustav is rejected by Nora (Reinsve) for his new film, he pivots by casting an American starlet, Elle Fanning as fictional actress Rachel Kemp. Fanning is excellent here, bringing depth to a small but compelling subplot about an actress rethinking her career choices. But the more she grasps what Gustav wants this film, and her role in it, to represent, the more conflicted she becomes about staying on board. She really does solid work here though I’d dare say I thought her work in Predator: Badlands is still her best from the year.
Truthfully, without Skarsgård, I wouldn’t like this movie nearly as much as I do. There’s something addicting about a character who’s lived a long life and is forced to confront the people and parts of himself he once ignored. The messiness of his past, the urgency of his present; it pulled me in completely. His path as an artist, father, and grandfather is what elevates this into higher territory for me, and he’s an easy check on any acting ballot of mine.
If I had to mention gripes, the daughters’ arcs didn’t land with the same force as their father’s. I found myself locked into Gustav’s scenes far more than theirs. Part of that comes down to storytelling choices. Nora’s small subplot involving an affair with a colleague felt like something that could’ve been left on the cutting room floor, and Agnes’ (Lilleaas) own family, especially her husband, faded into the background in a way that didn’t help me understand her beyond surface tension. The film as a whole could’ve stood to be tighter, and the final 15–20 minutes slightly overstay their welcome.
Still, Sentimental Value genuinely struck me. This is the strongest work I’ve seen yet from Joachim Trier as a director ad storyteller, and it may very well end up being my favorite live-action international film of the year that isn’t tied to an anime series. On first watch, I land on a solid A-. It’s absolutely worth seeing for anyone who loves family dramas, or films about the art, and pain, of making films.
“TL;DR”
Pros: Fascinating examination of an elderly man in his twilight years struggling with the ghosts of his past present in his artistry and his strained relationship with his daughters
Cons: A bit overlong, has some fat that could’ve been trimmed down; The daughters’ arcs didn’t resonate with me as strong as the father’s
GRADING
