Tiff25: ‘sentimental value’ review

By Nadia Dalimonte

Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinsve in Sentimental Value

​When Joachim Trier made The Worst Person in the World, he captured the intricacies of life in just over two hours of screen time. On every rewatch, the film feels like a miraculous discovery all over again. Trier is so deeply present with the story, and so specific in conveying one woman’s experience as she searches for meaning, that he manages to reflect “The Worst Person in the World” back onto the viewer in a universally warm embrace. Whether you’re in your twenties or not, whether you’re navigating romantic relationships or career paths, forks in the road of adult life are achingly relatable. Trier’s grounded approach keeps his characters in constant motion. There are no neat and tidy resolutions to conflict. The emotionality sneaks up on you, which carries over into Sentimental Value, his latest film co-written by Eskil Vogt. It’s a tender, witty chronicle of a family brought closer together by art, history, and a house full of painful memories.

For years, filmmaker Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård) has been estranged from his daughters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). Nora is an actress who suffers from anxiety attacks before going on stage to perform. She has her methods for getting through the nerves, like asking one of the stagehands (played by Anders Danielsen Lie) to slap her. While Nora eventually finds her mark on stage, and her performance is met with rapturous applause, her personal life feels adrift. She carries a palpable sadness with her, which turns into anger when on the subject of her father. Nora’s sister Agnes, who as a child starred in one of their father’s most acclaimed movies, leads a more grounded life. Agnes has a family of her own and appears more level-headed. While they have a shared childhood experience, the two sisters have different relationships to their father, who had abandoned them when they were kids. Years later, at their mother’s wake, Gustav walks back into their lives as though no time has passed. This bleak setting brings the family together by way of reckoning, with Gustav returning to the damage not to resolve, but to understand.

Making matters more depressing, Gustav reconnects with Nora in the hope that she’ll agree to star in his next film, which is based on a Borg family tragedy. He makes it clear that she’s the only one who can play the role. She refuses to read the script, wanting no part in the project. Casting takes an unexpected turn when Gustav attends a festival screening for one of his movies. Sat in the audience is Hollywood movie star Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), who connects with him and accepts the role Nora had turned down. Gustav encourages Rachel to dye her hair brown and use a Norwegian accent. Studious and talented as Rachel may be, her performance by admission feels stilted. Unable to get a proper read on the character, she seeks answers from Nora on the art of being. 

When art is made personal, it can hold a very powerful mirror to the people whose lives are being reflected. For the characters of Sentimental Value, art evokes reconciliation and becomes the foreground for healing. In one of the most exquisite scenes, Agnes urges Nora to read an excerpt from their father’s script that he’s shooting. Agnes knows that the words on the page will resonate with Nora far more than any conversation with Gustav would (Nora and Gustav have difficulty communicating, and artistic expression is their bridge). The scene is a gut punch of self-reflection, and an intimate glimpse into the bond between two sisters. Nora questions how Agnes managed to turn out fine, having grown up in the same painful household. Agnes felt protected and safe because she had Nora. But who did Nora have? Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas play out the scene tremendously, as they transport you back in time to their layered childhood perspectives. This moment reinforces what the film is truly about: the ghosts that children inherit from their parents. The movie within a movie is a remarkable framework for the characters to reevaluate what they all mean to each other, and lift some of those invisible weights. 

The film also travels through time with the Borg family home in Olso. This beautiful home of bright red accents, surrounded by trees, looks like a picturesque fairytale. Trier makes the house a narrative focal point, using voiceover narration to unearth the history within its walls. You could feel the weight of the past in its architecture. The house reflects generations of life; no matter how many renovations are made, it will forever carry the memories of the people who once lived there. And when a house no longer feels like a home, it will lose its sentimental value. The belongings become objects, and the rooms become confines. There’s a fascinating dynamic at play between the characters and this house. Gustav walks in like a friendly ghost, passing through with unintentional harm and unaware of his haunting impact. Nora walks into her past, frozen in time. Agnes hovers someplace between attached and detached; she has made a new home for herself, but there are certain things that still carry sentimental value.

Sentimental Value is home to such lived-in characters, giving the actors an incredible framework to fill in their own portrayals. Trier crafts a true ensemble here; this is every bit Skarsgård’s film as it is Reinsve’s and Lilleaas’. From their interior conflicts to their messy shared path towards forgiveness, their relationship dynamics define the heart of the story. Reinsve is a brilliant performer who makes acting look effortless on screen. Since reaching international stardom with The Worst Person in the World, followed by compelling roles in A Different Man and Armand, Reinsve is one of the most exciting actors working today. As Nora in “Sentimental Value,” she runs the gamut of a fully realized character whose knack for acting stems from a desire to escape. Reinsve has an especially vulnerable moment at the beginning of the film, when Nora experiences a breakdown backstage just minutes before a performance.

Playing her sister Agnes, Lilleaas too makes acting look effortless. You simply cannot take your eyes off her character, as she carries her childhood experiences in a different way compared to Nora. Agnes is often the picture of composure and brings a grounded quality to the family dynamics, as the keen observer of Nora and Gustav’s artistic expressions. Lilleaas delivers a quietly impactful performance that builds to a moment of boundaries drawn with her father, when he expresses wanting the young version of himself in his movie to be played by Agnes’ son Erik. It’s an outstanding moment that invites curiosity as to how Agnes feels about having starred in one of her father’s movies many years ago, and the lingering impact of that experience. Adding to the brilliant ensemble, Elle Fanning shines as the celebrity outsider to the Borg family. It’s also refreshing to discover the depth of Rachel’s character as she navigates the challenge of taking part in such a personal project, while wanting to be seen and heard for her talent.

Skarsgård delivers a career-best performance as Gustav, walking a fine line of contradictions to bring remarkable realism into the role. He’s not a villain for his past, nor is he a hero for being a changed man in the present. His character speaks to a thoughtful mediation on how art can help process emotions and reflect the truth back onto oneself. With Gustav being a filmmaker, wanting to cast his daughter as the lead of his new movie, Trier finds a creative way to depict a parent setting the stage for their child to follow. Additionally, through Gustav’s character, the film engages in some pointed criticism of how audiences engage with art today. From prickly press junkets and “Tik-Tok trolls” to the pressure of making a relevant movie, Skarsgård relishes in those moments of frustration.

It’s not uncommon to want something as soon as someone else wants it, especially in a sibling dynamic. The feeling is captured in a moment shared between Agnes and Nora, as they go through family belongings, eventually reaching a vase. Nora appears disinterested in the vase at first, until Agnes expresses wanting to keep it. Sentimental Value so profoundly communicates the fear of losing something, or someone, that you didn’t think mattered so dearly or that you wanted so much. When Nora does grab the vase — in a rush on her way out of the house, knowing that Gustav is about to enter — it’s as though she still needs that piece of her family to hold onto, as she heads on a spirited path of figuring out life.