Danish-Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier’s most recent work, Sentimental Value, opens with aerial views of Oslo, Norway, and detailed scans of a handsome, richly finished, but aged Victorian home.
This house is the primary setting of the family drama that serves as the theme of the film. A father who long ago abandoned his family seeks to reconnect with his two grown daughters after the death of his former wife—their mother.
Stellan Skarsgård is film director Gustav Borg, who returns to the family home where we learn his own mother hanged herself when he was a young boy. Gustav has written a new film based on her life and death, and he intends that his older daughter, Nora, a theatre actor, portray his mother.
Nora, a stunning Renate Reinsve, resents his return and his idea. She harbors both sadness and anger at her father for his abandonment of her, and refuses to play the part. Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas portrays his younger daughter, Agnes, who welcomes her father and seeks to bridge the relationship.
Gustav then turns to an American actress played by Elle Fanning to fill the role. She rehearses the part, but soon realizes she is unable to play the part well. Fanning and Lilleaas also bring remarkable skill to their roles.
Nora is the center of the film. Early on she is shown about to perform a theatrical role, and out of a moment of quiet concentration she leaps into uncontrolled anxiety, running frantically away, ripping her costume, fighting her handlers. Then, suddenly calm and focused on her role, she enters center stage. Reinsve is excellent; this is edge-of-your seat movie watching.
In a later scene with Fanning, in less than ten seconds and without moving a limb, Reinsve’s face displays pleasure, fear, anger and pain.
Skarsgård is almost as good. As Gustav he is selfish, manipulative, guilt-ridden, single-minded, and—blind to the suffering of his daughter—expecting immediate reconciliation.
Sentimental Value is about a father and a daughter and the emotional turmoil that his absence and indifference toward her has caused. The strong acting makes the scenes between them uncomfortable to watch, as Nora rejects his weak attempts to win her affection as part of her neurotic responses to him and her other relationships.
Gustav’s relentless efforts to complete his film, and to secure the right actor for the lead role, are resolved with an unlikely conclusion that seems inconsistent in a 133-minute film so largely dark. The house comes back into view in the end as well, its renovation to a contemporary style including the whitewashing of the exterior.
Hania Rani’s supporting music is wonderful and wide ranging, from jazz to piano concertos. Cinematography by Kasper Tuxen is equally fitting.
While it’s no Sound of Music, Sentimental Value provides extraordinary performances, stunning Norwegian landscapes, and beautiful music.
Editor’s Note: Sentimental Value is now playing at The SLO Film Center at the Palm Theatre.