Sentimental Value review
Cast: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning and Anders Danielsen Lie
Director: Joachim Trier
Rating: ★★★★.5
Nothing wrecks us more than the family. It is the root of all causes; it informs how we look at the world, how we choose to love, and whom we cannot help but hate. Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s new film Sentimental Value takes a look at one such family, a dysfunctional one at that, and it so happens that they are linked to filmmaking. It is the Borg family house where we first lay our eyes, as a female voiceover takes us through its history, its various secrets and doorways, tracing the lives of its inhabitants over the decades. These glorious opening minutes lay the foundation of a film which continually surprises and delights, culminating in an intimate family portrait that hits too close to the heart.
The premise
Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård) is a great filmmaker, but not a particularly good father. His divorce and resultant distance from two daughters, Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), have left permanent scars on their relationship. Gustav returns to Oslo, and Nora is right when she senses that he definitely wants something. Because there is no reason for him to reappear other than his own. Nora’s sadness is a living entity, a dark shadow that follows her like a ghost. A theatre actor, her need for affirmation and her untapped anger never leaves her alone. Agnes is much more tolerant, having started a family of her own. She was once an actor, but left that profession a long time ago.
Turns out, Gustav has written a script- his first one in a decade- and wants to cast Nora in the lead. She, perplexed at his audacity, rejects it outright. Gustav then chances upon American actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning gets the most meta-role ever) and casts her instead. Rachel practices the lines in English and tries really hard to impress Gustav, and through her, the viewer gets to see what’s amiss.
Wonderfully written and acted
Trier, who co-wrote the script with Eskil Vogt, marvellously charts the lives of these characters with a keen ear for dialogue. The screenplay, novelistic in its authenticity and detail, confidently jumps between the years to trace the history of the Borg family at one instant and stays with Nora’s lived-in depression the next. The off-kilter moments of sharp wit also work tremendously, like the one where Gustav gifts DVDs of Irreversible and The Piano Teacher to his grandchild on his birthday. Or the sly look at how talent agents and PR work around the actor, following them around and hyping them up.
Yet what is Sentimental Value about? Is it about the making of Gustav’s new film? Or is it about Nora and Agnes coming to terms with their father? Why, it is about both: a filmmaker and a father, a film and a family, the presence of history and the question of endurance. This is a film that interrogates how films can become a mode of reconciliation, a space for catharsis. A melting pot of the personal and the political. Gustav might not realise why he behaves the way he does, but Agnes tries to find out. The generational trauma that binds Gustav and Nora also pulls them apart. Trier, fortunately, does not pick sides or make villains of these people. Although it does become a little heavy-handed at times. Sentimental Value writes itself a little too much to surprise.
It is Agnes who becomes the film’s conscience. Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas quietly devastates as the sister who sees through these people, the one who truly knows how lonely her sister has become. Her eyes are the soul of this film. One particularly moving sequence with her and Nora taking the time to talk to one another is the film’s clear standout moment of emotional truth. What a wonderful ensemble of actors Trier and his team have assembled! Perhaps the trickiest character is given to Elle Fanning, who plays a very good actor who must realise she is miscast. It is her best performance to date. She makes Rachel Kemp so much more: a curious, empathetic person who knows her worth. Her scenes with Gustav at the film festival are exquisite.
Meanwhile, Stellan Skarsgård is in career-best form as the absent father, who steadily realises that time is no longer in his hands. His actions have consequences. There’s so much just in the way his body language changes in the course of the film. Yet, Sentimental Value truly belongs to Renate Reinsve. The actor is breathtaking here as a woman who has had to live with depression and loneliness for years, an actor who digs up personal trauma to infuse her performance. She is alive on stage, but it takes everything out of her. For how long can she do that? For how long can she escape without closure?
A sublime, deeply moving film
Sentimental Value is the kind of film that makes the viewer see the world in a different light. It is a masterpiece. Trier has created a film of infinite tenderness and warmth, seeing filmmaking as a deeply flawed yet transcendent medium of creative expression. In films, we bring our hearts and our bodies. We see something on screen, and we want to know how fiction can move us so deeply. We wonder how much life must have gone into the characters. Trier suggests, yes, a lot. A lot has gone by, and a lot is yet to come. It will be hard, unfair, tiring, reckless, fast, and fulfilling. All we have to do is keep the door open.
Sentimental Value is available to watch on MUBI India.
