Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value is, truly, a masterwork of emotional subtlety, rich characterisation, and formal elegance – a film that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant. It has already garnered a slew of fans from Cannes and other film festivals, and it doesn’t take long to realise why. Reuniting with longtime collaborator Eskil Vogt and The Worst Person In The World star Renate Reinsve, Trier returns to familiar terrain – memory, family, and the quiet devastations of love and loss, as well as the trials and tribulations of parenthood and childhood, but with a maturity and subtle, quiet restraint that puts this in the upper echelons of his catalogue of work so far. In fact, it might just be his best.
Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård) is an ageing, once-revered filmmaker whose legacy is frayed and in its twilight phase, which somewhat mirrors his role as an absentee father. After a family death and a retrospective about his career, Gustav has one last big quiver in his bow: a new film, based much on his own life as a father, and he wants to cast his estranged daughter Nora (Renate Reinsve) in the role once played by her late mother. Cue countless emotional landmines that bring forth the quiet underlying tensions from silence and histories unspoken, as well as trying to continue his emotional torture by becoming friendly with Hollywood star Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), who admires Borg’s work immersively.
Trier’s direction is extraordinary in its precision and grace: such a film could easily have been dragged down into melodrama and all that comes with it, but his assured, confident and composed hands, the power of subtext and the things unsaid are just as powerful – if not more so – than what is. It’s a slow burn in many senses. Still, purposefully so: Trier allows all his scenes and characters to breathe, long takes and slow, intoxicating cinematography by Kasper Tuxen as they all sit in their discomfort, stumbling towards connection. It feels like reading a novel as it evokes much of what makes a day curled up with a good book so riveting and peaceful.
Layered with resonance and thoughtfulness, Sentimental Value dives into those aforementioned themes surrounding family but there’s much here about art and life itself, generational trauma and emotional inheritance as all the family dive into unsolved anxieties with Gustav using his new film to revisit his failure as a father and perhaps find redemption, whilst his daughters Nora and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) confront the pain that he has left them to endure. But don’t expect too many answers; much is left ambiguous and untidy.
The performances are uniformly outstanding, with Reinsve, easily the best new actor plying their trade right now is nothing short of extraordinary. Her turn as Nora is raw, intelligent, sad, brittle and ultimately spellbinding with an elegant volatility lying just beneath the surface. Skarsgård and Lilleaas are equally remarkable, infusing both Gustav and Agnes with charisma, charm and understated beauty, whilst Fanning, as the young actress who ultimately takes the role meant for Nora, adds a compelling dimension as the outsider who proves both mirror and catalyst for catharsis, change and a semblance of forgiveness.
Emotionally rich and supremely intelligent without ever feeling cold or contrite, Sentimental Value is one of those rare films that is everything you want but also everything you didn’t know you wanted. Trier and co have once more crafted a stirring, soaring, spectacular film about the messy nature of family and generational trauma that will leave you with more questions than answers, but whose riches are worth the challenge they set out. A quietly shattering triumph that will continue to soar.
★★★★★
Screening as part of the 2025 BFI London Film Festival on October 12th, 14th and 19th / In UK cinemas on December 24th / Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning / Dir: Joachim Trier / MUBI / 15
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