Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value has been one of the darlings of the festival season, winning multiple European film awards, earning nine Oscar nominations, and charming audiences and critics alike. It opens as sisters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) reconnect with their father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), during their mother’s vigil. A largely absent parent who has long put his career as a filmmaker first, Gustav returns to a fractured family divided by distance, grief, and unresolved hurt.
Trier has already built an impressive body of work, most recently with The Worst Person in the World (2021). Sentimental Value stands among his very best. Its screenplay is layered and rich with meaning. From the title onwards, the film revolves around the family house, which becomes its defining symbol. The building carries profound sentimental value. Steeped in memory, it has borne witness to the tangled lives and losses of three generations. Through it, Trier examines intergenerational trauma and the lasting effects of grief.
As the film unfolds, Trier gradually reveals the house’s history. During the Second World War, Gustav’s mother and aunt lived there together. After joining the resistance, his mother was captured and tortured by the Nazis; unable to live with that trauma, she later took her own life. His aunt inherited the house and made a life for herself that defied convention. The film never labours the point, but it is clear that the loss of his mother shaped Gustav’s adulthood and, in turn, his failures as a father. He emerges as both loving and remote; a man who channels his unresolved pain into his filmmaking, and who tries, however imperfectly, to use art to reconnect with his daughters.
Although Nora initially seems to be the film’s center, its deepest emotional weight rests with Gustav. He becomes the story’s moral and emotional axis when he casts Hollywood star Rachel Kemp (played in all her vulnerabilities by the outstanding Elle Fanning) in his new project and develops an unexpected, tender bond with her. It’s one of the film’s most moving threads. Gustav’s choices force Agnes and Nora to confront the damage of their upbringing. At heart, Gustav is still the child devastated by his mother’s suicide, and that wound continues to shape every relationship he has.
The performances are excellent across the board. Skarsgård gives Gustav a compelling mix of tension, wit, and vulnerability, and Reinsve, Lilleaas, and Fanning all bring depth and fragility to their roles. The score, editing, and cinematography work together beautifully to create a quiet, haunted atmosphere in which these intertwined stories unfold.
It may not have generated the same mainstream buzz as Hamnet or One Battle After Another, but Sentimental Value has more than earned the admiration and acclaim it has received.
Why should public libraries add this movie to their shelves?
Sentimental Value invited discussion of grief, loss, trauma, and memory. It is a valuable resource for students and readers interested in contemporary Norwegian cinema.
Is this drama a good fit for campus screenings?
Yes. It’s the kind of family drama that invites conversation across disciplines, from film studies to psychology.
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