Sentimental Value

by Tyler Glover

Photo: Neon

Director: Joachim Trier
Starring: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard & Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas 
Rated: R (language & brief nudity)
Runtime: 2 hours & 13 minutes

​In this year’s Oscar race, you will notice that there are a lot of international films getting a lot of attention. “The Secret Agent” from Brazil, “It Was Just An Accident” from France, “Sirat” from Spain and “No Other Choice” from South Korea have been nominated in award show categories that are not just limited to the Foreign Language Film category. There are many movie lovers who do not give foreign-language films a chance because they have to read subtitles to understand what is going on. This is the year in cinema to start going out of your comfort zone if this applies to you. If you are going to give foreign language films a chance, I suggest you start with Norway’s “Sentimental Value.”  

“Sentimental Value” is directed by Joachim Trier, who co-wrote it with Eskil Vogt. The story follows two daughters, Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), as they navigate a difficult and complex relationship with their father, film director Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgard, who just won the Golden Globe for his performance). When Nora and Agnes were little, their parents divorced, and Gustav left his wife to raise the two girls while he pursued his career as a film director. Upon the death of their mother, Sissel, Gustav returns to Norway and offers Nora a role in his new film. Nora is an actress with modest success, but she turns him down without even reading the script. She does not want any involvement with him at all. When she passes, Gustav offers the role to American actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning). The daughters are rattled to see how much better he treats Rachel than he treats them.  

Trier and Vogt’s script is brilliant. This is such a brutally honest look at how two people can be raised by the same person, have the same feelings towards them, but can turn out way different. Agnes is a historian with a husband and child, and she seems to be able to hold it together when it comes to their dad. On the other hand, Nora is an actress who suffers from severe stage fright, is having an affair with a married man and spirals very easily with any adversity. The script would be fantastic even if we stopped there, but the film goes even deeper. We get to see how Gustav loves his daughters, but in a way most of us are not accustomed to. He has his own baggage, and that carried over into the lives of his children for better or for worse. It really teaches us that when we have parents who are not the best, we can choose to be better and do better, or we can let it break us for the rest of our lives. While it could be easy for the film to judge Gustav, it simply lays everything out as it is and lets us draw our own conclusions. There are no black-and-white areas in life. It is all grey. 

Besides the amazing script, this film is full of performances destined for Academy Award nominations. Reinsve, who previously worked with Trier in 2021’s “The Worst Person in the World,” plays Nora to perfection. She is such an emotionally complex character and could have been played very one-note by an actress of lesser caliber. Reinsve delivers and truly makes us feel connected to all of those complicated emotions Nora is going through. Lilleaas is equally as good. The line she has to play is a difficult one. Agnes is more accepting of Gustav, but not fully. She wants to keep the peace but also wants people to be held accountable. It was truly a difficult role to hit all of those notes, and she does it flawlessly. Skarsgard truly plays this complex father magnificently. He is able to balance being charming, mysterious and infuriating at the same time. Fanning’s portrayal of American actress Rachel Kemp is also refreshing. Rachel is truly an artist who wants the film to be made right, even if it doesn’t include her. That is truly something that is probably rare for Hollywood, where people most likely take what they can get.