Sentimental Value Review: A Spectacular Emotional Journey!

I have been neglecting international releases for far too long, and I apologize for the lack of breadth in my film viewings. When I see a new and celebrated release from Joachim Trier, I can’t pass it up. Sentimental Value finds the conjunctive tissue between the expression of artists through their work, and the personal experiences that mold them.

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Celebrated director Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård) aims to mold a film from his connection to his family, yet reconciliations with his distanced daughters Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes Borg Pettersen (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) detail a struggle in completing his vision of this film. Gustav and his daughters collectively embark on a journey of realization within their relationship and familial ties in the efforts to piece together a genuine and intricate film.

For Joachim Trier, this becomes a perfect foundation to communicate this struggle for an artist such as Gustav to coalesce with his past, and the extents of composing a fully expressive story. This notion carries into Sentimental Value impeccably. Joachim Trier opens the environment for these actors to conceive characters with a believable existence and complex convergence. The details in the production design tell a story of their own, and Trier’s cinematography is fully complementary to the storytelling.

Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, Igna Ibsdotter Lilleass, and Elle Fanning give a masterclass of acting as fully grown and lived-in characters. Sentimental Value feels almost autobiographical in that approach, as if these characters are a realization of lives once lived and the untapped peculiarities behind an artist’s motives.

This film forces the audience within this family drama, but none of it feels contrived. Nora and Agnes’s steady junction with Gustav evokes many emotions as the plot traverses the ebbs and flows of their unaddressed woes. It took me on a spectacular emotional journey that shocked, gripped, devastated, and inspired me. Joachim Trier is a master of detailing characters with complicated form and familiarity with one another. Sentimental Value is a narrative of artistic realization evaluated in many efforts from Trier and this cast.

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