When my parents sold the house where I grew up and moved into an apartment, I walked through the increasingly empty rooms and took pictures. Memories from the past 40 years spoke to me everywhere. Nostalgia blended with a sense of eeriness. I was reminded of that as Sentimental Value began its story by introducing us to a house that has belonged to the Norwegian-Swedish Borg family for a century. A narrating voice wonders what has made the house truly happy. When the family was out, leaving the walls and floorboards a chance to breathe? Or when the house was full of people, with kids leaving marks on doors, and glasses dropped on floors?
A house bears witness to joy and heartache over the years, becoming almost like a living member of a family. Those sentiments made me miss my childhood home even more.
Lost touch with his daughters
The Borgs are famous in Norway because of Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), a legendary film director. He divorced his wife many years ago and lost touch with his daughters, Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). Their relationship remains strained, even when Gustav shows up at the old house after the funeral of their mother. He hasn’t made a movie in years, but now he has written a deeply personal screenplay and wants Nora to play the lead in a film based on the World War II experiences of his mother.
Nora, who’s famous in her own right as a celebrated actress at Oslo’s national theater, is startled by the offer and refuses even to read the script. After all, Gustav has never cared for her career in theater; why should she do him this favor?
Choosing different paths
Part of the film is a moving depiction of sisters. Nora and Agnes are close, but have chosen different paths. Agnes is married, has a young son, and worries a lot about Nora being lonely; her sister is emotionally troubled, as shown in a brilliantly chaotic, angst-ridden early scene where she’s moments from simply running away from a huge opening night at the theater. Nora makes it clear that she’s not inclined to forgive her father for abandoning them at an early age, while Agnes is more understanding of the fact that shit happens. She’s also curious about her grandmother and begins looking into the public files that reveal the crimes that were committed against her in the name of occupied Norway’s Nazi-run regime at the time.
Stellan Skarsgård delivers one of his best performances as the Bergman-esque director.
Reinsve and Ibsdotter Lilleaas craft sensitive portraits of the sisters, and Elle Fanning is also very good as a young, insecure Hollywood star who becomes Gustav’s unlikely second choice to star in his movie, but Sentimental Value belongs to Skarsgård, and certainly not for sentimental reasons. He delivers one of his best performances as the Bergman-esque director who begins to realize that everything is slipping away from him. The film addresses painful things, like the swift passage of time and how it sneaks up on us, but as in the case of director Joachim Trier’s last film, the masterful Worst Person in the World (2021), there’s light at the end of the tunnel; Trier knows how to make it all ring true.
Sometimes, movies perceived as art-house need a little push to increase its commercial appeal. When Sentimental Value was first screened, one of the most popular young stars in the world, Charli XCX, fell in love with it and started promoting both the film and its director to her audience, declaring a ”Trier summer”, a reference to her most famous album. Trier’s films about the emotional journey of relationships and one’s own maturity deserve to be seen by more people around the world.
Sentimental Value 2025-Norway-France-Germany-Denmark-Sweden-U.K. 135 min. Color. Directed by Joachim Trier. Screenplay: Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier. Cast: Stellan Skarsgård (Gustav Borg), Renate Reinsve (Nora Borg), Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Agnes Borg Pettersen), Elle Fanning, Cory Michael Smith, Catherine Cohen, Anders Danielsen Lie, Jesper Christensen, Lena Endre.
Trivia: Original title: Affeksjonsverdi. Co-executive produced by Trier and Skarsgård.
Golden Globe: Best Supporting Actor (Skarsgård). BAFTA: Best Film Not in the English Language. Cannes: Grand Prize. European Film Awards: Best Film, Director, Screenwriter, Actor (Skarsgård), Actress (Reinsve).
Last word: “I’m super proud that [Skarsgård has] accepted. He’s tender and sweet, but he also knows how to not idealize characters. He can be a real asshole on screen, and he can play a narcissist. He knows who that is. He understands people in an intimate, intricate way, psychologically. He’s sophisticated like that. I call him Mr. Cinema because he’s worked with everyone internationally.” (Trier, Indiewire)