Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, a richly detailed psychological dramedy raises the question of whether art–in this case theater and film–can serve as a healing force within a complicated family that’s rife with intergenerational tensions.
Gustav Borg, a self-involved director and absent dad who tries to convince his anxious actress daughter (played by a fantastic Renate Reinsve) to star in his autobiographical film.
“We come to realise that Nora bears the weight of an impenetrable melancholy in a family in which suicidal despair lurks just below the surface. The sadness, however, is by no means a black hole, but a thing of many colours and registers. Foremost is Reinsve’s incandescence, even at her lowest. The deft script, which Trier cowrote with Eskil Vogt, features tonal shifts, between melancholy and playful, sometimes both at once. Most magical are the elisions between the ‘real’ world and the artful one of stage and cinema. Orchestral moods alternate with American pop songs. And a rich palette (Kasper Tuxen is the cinematographer) subtly shifts from silvery darkness of night, host to meditation or loneliness, to vibrant colours of filmmaking or acting.” (Molly Has
Grade: A-
Trier, who co-wrote this suble, tone-shifting narrative with Eskil Vogt, is obviously influenced by the works of fellow Scandinavians, Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman as well playwright Ibsen. Nora is the central character of fellow Noreogian Henrik Ibsen’s best known play, “A Doll’s House”)
The incandescent star Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) plays Nora, an anxious actress from Oslo, the daughter of imperious director Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård in career-best performance).
The tale follows the fractured relationship between acclaimed director Gustav Borg and his two estranged daughters, which becomes even more complex when he decides to make a personal film about their family history.
After the self involved Gustav and hus psychotherapist wife Sissel end their troubled marriage, he leaves Norway to focus on his career. Sissel raises singly their daughters, Nora and Agnes, in their Oslo home, which Gustav’s family had owned for generations.
In adulthood, Agnes works as a historian and is married with a son. Nora becomes a fairly successful actress, although she suffers from crippling bouts of stage fright (just like the heroine of Bergman’s Persona). She is engaged in an illicit affair with her colleague Jakob, who’;s married.
After Sissel dies, Gustav returns to Norway to reclaim the house, which now stands as a repository of memories and traumas, secrets and remorses. His daughters still resent him for his extended absences and for his drinking problem, although Agnes seems more sympathetic than Nora.
He tries to reconcile with his daughters, but their conversations are often derailed by his aggressive nature and lack of emotional sensitivity. He seems to have a better relationship with Agnes’ young son Erik, with whom he connects through messages.
With his career in decline, Gustav has trouble getting financing for his projects. His latest script was inspired by his mother Karin, a member of the Norwegian resistance movement who was tortured during the Nazi occupation and committed suicide when Gustav was seven.
Gustav proposes to shoot the movie in the actual home, with a recreation of Karin’s suicide as the climactic scene. He asks Nora to play her grandmother, but she refuses even to read the script.
To replace Nora, Gustav hires a young American actress, Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), whose bankable stardom convinces Netflix to finance the project. Later on, when Kemp realizes that Gustav is still preoccupied with Nora, she quits the film to restore his creative freedom,
The production grows troubled. Gustav resents working with Netflix. Kemp, unable to speak Norwegian, grows self-conscious about the fact that Gustav had to translate the script into English. Nora is upset as Gustav treats Kemp with more empathy than he does with his own daughters.
Jakob divorces his wife but he refuses to commit to Nora, loses interest in work. Gustav infuriates Nora by suggesting that her internal rage prevents her from finding love.
Agnes has a row with Gustav after he casts her son in the movie without her permission. She is reminded of Gustav casting her in a movie to connect with her, and bitterly remarks that the film did not make up for his failure to spend time together.
To understand her father better, Agnes visits the National Archives of Norway and reads about her grandmother’s torture, which she otherwise refused to discuss with anyone. Sensing that Karin passed on her generational trauma to Gustav, she reads Gustav’s script. She realizes that while the film is inspired by Karin, its emotional arc reflects regrets about his broken relationship with Nora.
A flash-forward shows the house being repainted and heavily renovated to fit modern tastes. Nora performs the climactic scene beautifully, and after the final take, exchanges an understanding look with her father.
A subtle film, composed of both big and small touches, Sentimental Value is a mature work that’s meticulously crafted. Mostly set indoors, the movie claims the rhythm of a well-structured play. Trier often punctuates the scenes with abrupt cuts to black, which also emhasizes the family’s fractured relationships.
Like Bergman, Trier goes all out for the expression of raw emotions with unbridled frankness. Despite a rather upbeat coda, he realizes that, ultimately, the tensions between artistic expression and familial connection might be unresolvable, and that wrestling with demons of the past is just an avenue for turning the present into a more positive or less unsettling existence.
The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 2025 Cannes Film Fest, where it received widespread critical acclaim and won the Jury’s Grand Prix.
It was later selected as the Norwegian entry for the 2026 Best International Feature Film Oscar.
Cast
Renate Reinsve as Nora Borg, actress from Oslo
Stellan Skarsgård as Gustav Borg, celebrated director, Nora and Agnes’ father
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as Agnes Borg Pettersen, Nora’s sister
Elle Fanning as Rachel Kemp, American actress who plays the lead
Anders Danielsen Lie as Jakob, Nora’s theater colleague and romantic interest
Jesper Christensen as Michael, Gustav’s producer
Lena Endre as Ingrid Berger
Cory Michael Smith as Sam, Rachel’s colleague
Catherine Cohen as Nicky, Rachel’s colleague
Andreas Stoltenberg Granerud as Even Pettersen, Agnes’ husband
Øyvind Hesjedal Loven as Erik, Agnes and Even’s son
Lars Väringer as Peter, Gustav’s retired cinematographer
Ida Marianne Vassbotn Klasson as Sissel, Gustav’s ex-wife and Nora and Agnes’ mother
“Deftly exploring the uneasy , Sentimental Value is a bracingly mature work from writer-director Joachim Trier
