Sentimental Value (2025) Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKbcKQN5Yrw

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

When you want to remember how much the past strengthens you, make something out of it.


PLOT


Also known as ‘Affeksjonsverdi’, Sentimental Value follows filmmaker Gustav Borg who broke up with his wife Siselle, which would be his excuse to leave Norway to focus on his career. Their eldest daughter Nora became a successful stage actress that suffers from stage fright & is dating her colleague Jakob, while her sister Agnes became a historian happily married to her husband Even (Andreas Stoltenberg Granerud) who she has a son with. Gustav would return to their lives after Sissel’s death, but both of his daughters resent him for his extended absences and their past conversations with him mostly ending with his micro aggressions & lack of emotional intelligence. Wanting to also reclaim their childhood home, he tells Nora he’s developed a script of his mother Karin who was a tortured member of the Norwegian resistance movement and killed herself when he was only seven years old. When she refuses to read the script as she intended for her for the part, he ends up deciding younger American actress Rachel Kemp for the role after meeting her at a festival. Her star power does lead to Netflix financing the film, but he does resent the process especially since his longtime friend Peter is too frail to be his cinematographer again. During production, Rachel struggles to speak Norwegian to the point where Gustav has to translate the script for her and Nora resents him more for his decision to be more empathetic to the actress than he’s ever been to his actual daughters. Around the time of celebrating the birthday of Agnes & Even’s son Erik (Øyvind Hesjedal Loven), Gustav & Nora argue that her internal rage is keeping her from finding love, hence Jakob not ready to commit to her. As this leads to her losing interest in her work, Agnes gets livid of her dad wanting Erik to be in the movie, claiming that previously casting her in another doesn’t compensate his past failures as a parent. Rachel eventually decides to exit production when realizing the role was never meant for her and the night she does, Gustav collapses outside the house, leading to him being hospitalized. When that happens, Agnes decides to understand him better why visiting the National Archives of Norway to read her grandma’s statement of her past torture. Believing that she passed on generational trauma to her son does she read the script and realize that Karin’s arc reflects Gustav’s sincere regrets in their broken relationship. When reading the final scene that is Karin’s suicide does she become stunned that it reflects her own suicide attempt that she never told him about. Agnes encourages Nora to read the script too, which moves her to the point of agreeing to join the film. Some time later, Gustav is fully recovered from his collapse and sells the house to finance his movie. The shoot would take place in a sound stage that resembles the old Borg home. After shooting the climax does the film end with Nora and Gustav sharing an understanding look without speaking a word to one another. 


THOUGHTS


Maintaining relationships with family is always a challenge because when you get older, personalities & beliefs clash constantly and it becomes harder to appreciate let alone respect one another. Director Joachim Trier and cowriter Eskil Vogt understood this situation and were able to adapt a story of recovery in a way that brings you full of relief. I was very enamored with the editing/cinematography combo Oliver Bugge Coutté & Kasper Tuxen respectively because there was a sense of not wonder but more on finding content. That is part of what brings this story in full circle saying while there is a benefit in using art to heal from trauma/grief like in Hamnet, it is much better to do it more directly in order for understand where you’re coming from. If you’re not being clear on how you feel, then the process can be harder to complete. This is the case when following the Borg family, who all have their baggage, know the source of it and find their ways to put it behind them. Veteran actor Stellan Skarsgård is the dysfunctional patriarch as Gustav as he never knew how to be a parent who had the charm to win many hearts through his career, but his daughters saw through how much narcissism he had. Since they had the right to assume he was just being a clueless jerk from his absence alone, which I would hysterically pick up on when he gave his grandson DVD copies of graphic dramas like The Piano Teacher and Irreversible, they couldn’t understand that he was trying to come from a good place. With his trauma, he was afraid of making things worse and thought they would be better off without him. Little did he expect they really needed him even after they figured themselves out without him. He does his best in wanting to do right by them with his next movie because he knows he’s getting older and wants them to know how sorry he is with the mistakes he’s made before it’s too late, hence the title for this film. When he flipped off the sky before collapsing, that was his way of saying he’s proud of living longer than he thought he could and I can’t help respecting that while still being on the girls’ side to not condone it. Renate Reinsve & Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas were a great sibling duo who accurately portrayed Nora & Agnes as opposite sides of the coin moving on from grief. The latter is so interesting because she’s self aware that holding grudges doesn’t solve anything, thus being so empathetic. If she wasn’t able to be so forgiving first, she would’ve not been able to help her sister do the same. The former is so chaotic in her life because her conscience has never been clear off of the fact that her dad’s absence troubled her deeply. She has her own artistic vision which is the one thing either daughter got to inherit from the father, but is so repressed from said neglect that she doesn’t know how let go of that intensity that has defined her. And when she meets Rachel, it only made her all the more livid at the time. Enter Elle Fanning who is her own standout in her first Oscar nominated performance that she shares with her costars. As Kemp, she does see the role of Karin as another gig and another way to elevate her career, but the longer she got attached to the part, the more she saw it was never meant for her, especially when she realizes how nurturing of a father figure Gustav chose to be around her during pre-production. She knew that Gustav had baggage from that situation alone and the only way he was gonna get through it is if she wasn’t involved. It’s a humbling decision that not many actors/actresses would do, which makes you respect her decision all the more. There definitely is a domino effect in the third act because while I credit Agnes being the empathetic anchor the family needs, I don’t think Nora would’ve read the script had her dad’s health scare not happened. And after reading the script completely, she finally saw where her dad was coming from after all this time. Now that she got to do the movie with him like he wanted, and even young Erik gets to be part of it, it’s safe to say the family gets the best chapter of their lives they’ve been waiting for. In short, Sentimenal Value is a deserving Best Picture Oscar nominee for being a moving tale of what makes connection & reunion special moments in our lives. If those are the kind of stories you prefer, check this out.

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.