[Rating: Minor Rock Fist Up]
With the holidays coming up, one of the cornerstones of any get together is the power of family. Be it biological family or found ones, it is always important to have those around you to lift you up or to reflect on the past with good memories. However, this is not always the case for a lot of people and the holiday season also brings out a time of annoyance with past hurtful memories of time gone by.
This happens to be the case of director Joachim Trier’s latest film, Sentimental Value, in which we find the Borg family coming together and questioning their own past and current relationship with one another.
Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve) is a stage and television actress in Oslo, Sweden. Her panic at performing live on the stage culminates with doubts if she can actually act, and a fling with a colleague, Jakob (Anders Danielsen Lie). Nora’s mother passes away and she comes back home to Norway. Her childhood home is now inhabited by sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) and her family. The two reconnect at the wake, but to their surprise, in walks their estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgard). Gustav is a celebrated film director who still owns the house and asks the girls to go through any sentimental values their mother still cherished before he sells it. Gustav attempts to reconnect with Nora (he seems to have a better working relationship with Agnes), by selling her on his latest film idea. The film script , mimics Gustav’s own life growing up in the house, something that Nora rebuffs at and pushes them even more apart than they already were.
At a retrospective of Gustav’s films, he meets American actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) and they hit it off right away. Soon, Gustav and Rachel partner together in order to get his film made. With a big Hollywood star attached to the project, Gustav is able to secure release from Netflix and work with a substantial budget. However, Rachel begins to have her own doubts she can play this role when she asks Nora why she didn’t accept the offer. Gustav has his own delusions of grandeur as he pushes himself further away from his daughters, wanting to use the house for filming, including a pivotal scene of his mothers own suicide in the house. Nora and Agnes reconnect even further on their own pasts with their mother, father and the house that brought them together as a family.
I liked Sentimental Value. It didn’t hit me as hard as Trier’s other feature The Worst Person in the World, but the performances in this really kept me interested. Reinsve and Skarsgard have one of the best daughter and father relationship roles put onto film. Watching them interact together makes me believe they are related and going through their own issues. I think my biggest criticism is I wish there was more to it. I wish Nora and Gustav had more together after their fight in the beginning of the film, but I understand the dynamic of Nora and Agnes was more important. Having one very pivotal scene between Nora and Rachel was a smart choice, leading us further to question if we should like Gustav or not as a father and director.
Family is such a complicated thing. Especially families that use other means to capitalize on their own pasts and family issues. Often times it is outside parties looking in that get to see the troubles that were personal come through, which is one reason Sentimental Value is very gripping and thoughtful.
Christian Ramos is a classic film fan, having had the dream to host Turner Classic Movies for years now. He also has a large amount of Oscar trivia in his head, remembers dressing as Groucho Marx one Halloween, and cherishes the moment Julianne Moore liked his tweet.
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