Sentimental Value

Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård) looks to reconnect with daughter Nora (Renate Reinsve) in Sentimental Value (Distributed by Neon)

Sentimental Value is a drama about fathers, mothers, daughters, sisters, regret, resentment and filmmaking. In Norwegian, Swedish and English, with English subtitles, it is thoughtful, emotionally honest and engaging when it comes to families and the art of directing. The performances are strong and the writing is patient and well-observed.

Director/cowriter Joachim Trier previously made the excellent drama The Worst Person in the World. This is probably more thematically ambitious, with a deeper narrative scope. It doesn’t hit as hard, though. The impact is a bit muted, perhaps due to a limited ability to fully explore the lives of all four of its complex central characters. It is a very good movie, even if it feels slightly lacking in some of its connections.

Kind of reminiscent of the films of Ingmar Bergman (mostly thematically, but also in a few shot choices), it is a pretty fascinating, intimately shot, meditation on familiar material. The importance of one’s art and how that affects everyone in their orbit has been explored before, usually at least partially semi-autobiographically. Thankfully, Trier is a supremely talented filmmaker and lends some nonjudgmental insight to the topic. The result is absolutely worth seeing.

Gustav has always valued his art over everything else in his life. That has distanced him from his daughters. After the death of their mother, he returns to his former home with a new script he intends to turn into a movie, starring, he hopes, his oldest daughter, Nora, an actress. This stirs up all sorts of feelings and causes them both, along with younger daughter Agnes, to reflect on the past and how it may be getting in the way of the present.

As the character who sets this story spinning, Gustav could easily have become a cliché: the absentee father looking to reconnect for selfish reasons. He is compelling simply because the screenplay (by Trier and Eskil Vogt) does not leave him at one dimension. Yes, he is self-absorbed and arrogant enough to believe his work is more important than his family. However, he knows this about himself.

Gustav bonds with Rachel (Elle Fanning)

He does love Nora and Agnes, yet what is that love compared to the power of his work? Even his excuses have more to do with his own limitations than anything else. He doesn’t apologize. Each of his relationships must be on his terms because of the nature of his life. He almost understands why people could struggle to accept this, but he does not understand why anyone, especially his daughters, would not be willing to sacrifice for his art.

Stellan Skarsgård is great as Gustav, showing a man who cares, while being unable to compromise. He has moments of deep introspection, as well as ones where, for example, he is baffled as to why Nora, furious at him for abandoning his family to make movies, refuses to even consider reading his script.

Renate Reinsve, so incredible in The Worst Person in the World, is fantastic again as Nora. As an artist herself, mostly on stage, Nora is full of anger and anxiety. When Sentimental Value (127 minutes, without the end credits) begins, she is having a meltdown as she prepares to go onstage for her next performance. Hiding in her dressing room, ripping apart her dress, eventually she demands that someone slap her, clearing her head enough to do what she has to do. Reinsve is a ball of emotions as the main target of Gustav’s efforts to be involved again.

Then there is Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as Agnes, married with an adorable little boy and closer to her dad as a researcher for his ideas. Her arc is much subtler, yet also really good. The final major role goes to Elle Fanning as a famous American actress, not known for taking on challenging parts, who chooses to step in to Gustav’s latest project after Nora declines. This is another character handled far more sensitively than expected. She is not vapid or dumb. She is being challenged in a way she never has been and she appreciates it. Fanning, an underrated actress in her own right, creates a sympathetic person where viewers may be anticipating a narcissist. Her relationship with Gustav brings this story to a higher level.

Gustav is described at one point as a difficult man, but a brilliant director who gets the most out of his collaborators. That is a tremendous starting place for a drama about two daughters who want their father to show them the same thoughtfulness he brings as a director. Joachim Trier finds some new notes for this plotline. If not everything lands full force, what does is still quite good.

4 out of 5

Cast:

Renate Reinsve as Nora Borg

Stellan Skarsgård as Gustav Borg

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as Agnes Borg Pettersen

Elle Fanning as Rachel Kemp

Directed by Joachim Trier

Written by Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier