Much like the best films of Swedish master Ingmar Bergman, Norwegian helmer Joachim Trier’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated gem, The Worst Person in the World, is bubbling over with riveting performances that deeply mine the psychological complexities of its characters, anchored by one central figure. In Bergman’s cine-world, that was usually the Liv Ullmann role. In Trier’s spellbinding, cinematic tour de force, Sentimental Value, the figure is embodied by the beguiling Renate Reinsve.
World premiering at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and winning the Grand Prix, this rich and rewarding film examines difficult familial relationships and the healing and damage that can be done when these explorations are exploited.
At the outset of Sentimental Value, once-close sisters Nora (Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) have reunited to mourn the death of their mother. Both are now forced to see their estranged father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), who basically abandoned them when they were young. To say they have daddy issues—especially Nora—is an understatement.
Gustav was once a revered auteur but hasn’t been able to get a film financed in over a decade.
Nora is a successful stage actress, in Oslo, who we first see having a bizarre type of backstage panic attack where she tries to seduce her leading man (Anders Danielsen Lie), who she is having an affair with. When he stops her, she asks to be slapped. But once she is coaxed out onto the stage, she triumphs.
Agnes chose the security of a family but is still haunted by having once played the lead in one of her father’s beloved films as a child.
They now converge in the house that Gustav was brought up in where his mother hanged herself, unable to deal with her trauma from being tortured during the war (WW2).
Gustav has written a brand-new screenplay, presumably about his mother, and wants Nora to play the lead, knowing that because of the success of her television series, it will get financing. He also insists she’s perfect for the part. But Nora is aghast at the offer and turns him down. She refuses to even read the script.
While attending a retrospect of a WW2-themed film he made decades ago, Gustav encounters Hollywood star Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), who is awestruck by his film and agrees to play the role in his movie, which Gustav will rewrite as American.
The rest of the film follows the three main characters on their sometimes emotionally torturous journeys.
Fanning is an absolute delight. Her Rachel is part Emma Stone, part Julia Roberts—dedicated to her craft and serious about getting it right. Last year, Fanning should have been Oscar-nominated for A Complete Unknown. Hopefully, she will not be overlooked again.
Lilleaas is a revelation as Agnes, the kind, loving sister/daughter, but there is so much more going on beneath the surface. She imbues Agnes with a perplexing longing that fascinates.
Reinsve was egregiously overlooked last year for her enigmatic turn in Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel’s bold first feature, Armand, Norway’s International Oscar submission (which made the short list). That can’t happen again. She is simply luminous in one of the year’s best performances. Reinsve conveys such a multitude of conflicting emotions throughout the film, it’s sometimes overwhelming to watch.
Skarsgård achieves the miraculous portraying an egomaniacal cad who abandoned his family, yet somehow we manage to sympathize with him—at least I did. Even in his devious, selfish manipulations, lies an honest desire to, also, do what’s best for the person he’s trying to take advantage of. The actor has been doing amazing work for the last three decades, beginning with Lars von Trier’s masterpiece, Breaking the Waves, in 1996, and has somehow never been nominated for an Oscar. That should also change with this extraordinary performance.
The ultimate value of Sentimental Value lies in its argument that art can heal even the deepest wounds and often bridge the most gaping of gaps. It’s the kind of film I was thoroughly appreciating and engrossed in throughout, but then, after the final scene, I was left with this feeling I had just witnessed something profound.
A NEON Release.
Sentimental Value is part of the Main Slate at the New York Film Festival.
