When I first saw Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, I wasn’t in the best of moods. Myself and about 400 other film critics sat inside a cold movie theater after we were forced to stand outside during a severe thunderstorm. I was soaked to the bone, freezing, and not remotely comfortable. It’s fair to say that I wasn’t in the right mindset for a film like this. So I made a point to revisit it before sitting down to write a full review for it. After watching it again and letting it rest with me for a couple of weeks, I struggled to connect with it. As much as it admired its crafts, its performances, and its quiet emotional depth, I struggled to connect with the film and I don’t know why.
After the death of their mother, Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ilbsdotter Lilleaas) lives are uprooted as their estranged father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgard) comes back into their lives. Gustave, a once-renowned director offers Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film. After she turns it down, he finds a young eager Hollywood actress named Rachel (Elle Fanning) to play the role. What follows is a story about love, loss, and forgiveness as this family navigates the production of this film.
From the film’s very first frame, you can feel the subtlety in Joachim Trier’s filmmaking. His simplicity is one that never announces itself yet it shapes every quiet moment. The camera moves with a natural ease, gliding through spaces without ever drawing attention away from the people within them. The editing shares that same simplicity as it guides us through this story that is so quiet that it feels almost instinctive. Even the cinematography embraces this quiet touch as every frame is bathed in soft Norwegian pastels that hold both nostalgia and melancholy. It is a simplicity that doesn’t flatten the narrative, but instead deepens our connection to it. Trier creates a world that feels lived in and unguarded, allowing us to watch this family from a gentle distance while still feeling the weight of their entanglements. The result is filmmaking that may look modest on the surface, but works with remarkable precision as it pulls us into the emotional currents of this complicated family drama.
And it wouldn’t be a Joachim Trier film if it didn’t open in that soft, unassuming register before it eventually hits you like a brick wall. The story moves with that same quiet confidence. We meet this family through Nora’s school monologue, where she imagines becoming her family’s hour. It’s warm, familiar, and a little battered. It creaks under every step, it has fractured foundations, and each room dims when her parents make “noise”. Even before we know the details of this family, we can feel the stress of this family living in its walls. We know that Gustav left when Nora and Agnes were young children, and that the sound has settled more deeply in Nora. Agnes wants to repair things. Nora insists that they can’t communicate. So when Gustav returns offering Nora the lead in his new film, one drawn directly from their own family’s history, everything they have been avoiding rises to the surface. Sentimental Value moves quietly as it peels back the layers of this family one at a time until the emotional truth finally lands. And it hits you like a wrecking ball as it becomes a story about reconnection, forgiveness, and the fragile but persistent bond of family.
Led by the brilliant Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgard, they give the film the tangled father-daughter relationship. Both actors lean into the restraint precision of this narrative, delivering performances so controlled and understated that they feel lived in rather than performed. But the real standout for me is Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, who anchors the entire family dynamic. She becomes the steady presence between them as she holds the emotional threads together as everything around her threatens to split apart.
Yet despite this praise, I found myself strangely distant from Sentimental Value and I don’t know why. It’s an undeniably well-crafted film with brilliant performances and a story that carries real emotional weight, but as the credits rolled, I realized I hadn’t fully connected with it. I’m not sure if the film didn’t reach me or if I simply wasn’t in the right place for it. Still, I can appreciate the beautiful tapestry Tier weaves, even if I sadly remained on the outside looking in.
My Rating: B+
Now in select theaters
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