“Sentimental Value” (2025) Review
Director: Joachim Trier Screenwriter: Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier Cast: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning Distributor: Neon Running Time: 133 min. MPAA: R
While there are plenty of films of a fractured family trying to heal old wounds, Sentimental Value attempts to do so through the language of art. The Borg family is established as one that seems to spend most of its time fighting and only shows its most sensitive side on stage or behind the camera. Only through that medium can discussions of grief and suicide become more earnest than awkward, where an audience is welcome for the spilling of emotions.
Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve) attempts to convey her true feelings through an opening essay, not about her family, but her family home. She personifies the house and speculates on what such an old structure must feel, having housed generations marked by frustrations, betrayals, and divorce. As an adult, Nora seems more honest on stage as an actor. When behind the curtain, she’s a mess of fright, craving a bit of sex or a brisk slap from her lover to get her back on track. But when she presents herself before an audience, she can express everything, namely, the bitterness towards her distant father.
That distance is something Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård) wants to work on after his ex-wife’s death. He returns to the family home for the funeral, finding it easier to speak with his other daughter, Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). While Gustave pursued filmmaking and Nora acted, Agnes departed from that world to become a historian and have a family, her son becoming a source of hope that she won’t repeat the problems she faced as a child. Realizing Nora won’t speak with him, no matter how hard he pleads for an open conversation, Gustav uses a language she can understand: a screenplay.
Gustav’s latest film isn’t just for Nora, though, as it aims to recreate the events that led up to his mother’s suicide. It might seem like yet another emotional drama, which is what the hired actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) likely assumed. But as pre-production begins, it becomes clear that this movie is not just about Gustav’s mother. It also reflects his relationship with his daughters, experiencing similar sensations of distance and death. Slowly, the daughters recognize how much is spilling out of Gustav through his latest work, allowing an old man who quietly regrets to spill them out on screen rather than continue to drown them in booze.
Director Joachim Trier has an incredible ability to make this art-focused family drama feel so natural that comedy seamlessly seeps into the staging. Some in-jokes remain among the Borg family. As Gustav gives Rachel a tour of his old home, he brings her to the room where his mother killed herself, implying the same stool remains. When he tells his daughters about this, they question whether she knew the stool was from IKEA. And in one of the funniest moments, Gustav attends the birthday party of his grandson, gifting him DVD copies of The Piano Teacher and Irreversible. Gustav’s reasoning for these recommendations is that they’ll teach Agne’s son to see women more as influential individuals rather than as people to be taken for granted. These are maybe the most extreme examples of teaching that lesson, but his heart’s in the right place, even if his brain is trapped by cinephile logic.
Sentimental Value beautifully sifts family therapy through the colorful mesh of art, where more earnest feelings can flourish than flounder. The film takes its time to explore all aspects of this complex sorting of emotions, spanning from Agnes debating whether her son should be in Gustav’s film and the troubling business relations that come with Gustav negotiating with his producer, Michael (Jesper Christensen). It’s a story that never becomes so simple as turning on a camera and letting the catharsis flow for grief and loneliness. There’s more going on beyond a recreation of the past, as complexly layered as the Borg family home, where there’s more than mere junk in its dark, forgotten corners. When spotlights activate and the camera starts recording, something more truthful is revealed, and there’s a deep satisfaction when watching that type of healing art unfold.
