Film

Sentimental value (2025)

Joachim Trier

5/5

Complex family dynamic

We are introduced to the main character Nora (Renate Reinsve) by witnessing her gripping terror before stepping on stage. We sense in her choice of career as theatre actress that she needs to confront her demons face on, her stage fright a side effect and perhaps a small price to pay for a form of creativity and resolution, imperfect and incomplete as they may be. On the day her mother Sissel is buried we are introduced to her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), and to the two sisters’ expectant and fearful relationship with their father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård). There is an ever present feeling of the two women expecting the worst from their father which he occasionally disappoints.

Gustav is a famous film director, above all incredibly vain, and as a consequence regularly quite thoughtless in his interaction with his two daughters. He was not much present as a father and this has created a certain family dynamic where the daughters crave his attention while at the same time being outraged and hurt by his egotistic behaviour. The elder daughter Nora is an acclaimed theatre actress with some mental health issues. The younger daughter Agnes, the best balanced of the three, is often the careful mediator between the other two. This trio brings to life the complexity of family ties with moving authenticity. That Stellan Skarsgård is an excellent actor is no surprise. What is particularly enjoyable however is the absorbing realistic bond between the two sisters masterfully recreated by Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas.

When Agnes comes to check up on the struggling Nora, bringing their father’s script she has just read, she asks Nora to read one section and then as she sees Nora absorbed in the rest of the text, she fades into the background to clear up while keeping an eye on her. It is a beautifully constructed scene. We understand that the historian Agnes is the only one who has the power to interpret things in the right or useful way and to offer a gentle correction to the chosen path.

In another tightly knit trio working behind the scenes, Joachim Trier directs with flair and sensitivity together with his regular collaborators, Eskil Vogt as his co-writer and Olivier Bugge Coutté as editor. On the face of it the narrative could be considered as rambling, but the script is excellently structured and the skill of everyone involved makes every detail count. The tight cutting of scenes works noticeably well to create a particular kind of atmosphere, quite Nordic in its rational yet subdued melancholy, advancing the narrative at a steady pace while allowing some playful digressive flourishes for character-building purposes. Many scenes are quite short with cuts to black, but then a few important ones are much longer ending with the desired single long take at the end.

The richness of the relationships is represented in a wide array of facial expressions, glances, eye rolls, movements and silences interspersed with moments of joy and fun. Towards the end there is a sequence of the faces of the father and two daughters transforming one into another, highlighting the bonds of genetics and emotions that rule them.

The family house that has been passed on through the generations is the stage putting the wealth of family dynamics on display. It is, we discover, the place where Gustav’s mother committed suicide after dispatching her young son to school. This family trauma is still in the background, but although the pain has been long supressed, it flairs up unsurprisingly under pressure. In a well-calibrated moment of humour further revealing his self-serving arrogance but also his pretend invulnerability, Gustav lies to Rachel (Elle Fanning), the actress he has chosen to play his mother, telling her that the Ikea stool in the house is the one his mother climbed to hang herself. Fanning has a minor role as an American ingenue and acquits herself well, although she is just a catalyst in a family drama. One can’t help thinking that Fanning is just there for the red carpet together with Skarsgård, but it is Reinsve and Ibsdotter Lilleaas who are the true stars of the film.

The title of the film does not sit comfortably over its delivered meaning. Perhaps in Norwegian ‘sentimental value’ means something subtly different. Or perhaps Trier deliberately offers a bourgeois and ironic throwaway title, the way his character Gustav might, wanting us to find out for ourselves. I could digress here for a while on what exactly the ‘sentimental value’ in the title is meant to be. Is it the house with the many memories of its past? Is it the randomness of the vase Nora takes while Agness is clearing the belongings? Or even the Ikea stool, the stand-in prop of an old tragedy, or Gustav’s script mirroring Trier and Vogt’s, a small measure of trying to understand.

There are no monsters or heroes in this film, there are no extreme unlikely events, it is just a story of one family. Finally although the old man gets his way again, we are begrudgingly forced to concede that everyone has a completely different but equally acceptable way of dealing with trauma.

Winner of Grand Prix at Cannes, Sentimental value is stunningly accomplished in every way. The ending is moving and cathartic. Being able to shout ‘Cut’, impossible in real life or indeed in theatre, is revealed to be highly salutary.