Sentimental Value

Following their beloved mother’s passing, sisters Nora (Renate Reinsve), a neurotic stage actress, and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), a selfless therapist, must contend with their long-absent father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård) barging back into their lives. A once-revered film director now barely evading obscurity’s undertow, he believes that a new, deeply personal project can salvage his career. But when Nora refuses the role he wrote specifically for her, Gustav finds a new muse in an eager but unpolished Hollywood star (Elle Fanning), sending his botched reconciliation spiraling further into chaos.

Joachim Trier’s superb follow-up to The Worst Person in the World sees him collaborating once more with Reinsve to craft an endlessly expressive, utterly transfixing protagonist whose mercurial nature keeps us on tenterhooks. Skarsgård’s knack for finely calibrated gestures is likewise a wonder to behold, pitting Gustav’s oversized ego against his burgeoning conscience as they wrestle for dominion. Abetted by outstanding performances, Trier mines both humour and heartbreak from these damaged souls’ attempts to mend their frayed family ties.

A story about home, inheritance, and fiction’s ability to reveal truths capable of bringing alienated individuals together, it’s a tumultuous, moving triumph.

Nick Schager, Daily Beast

Sentimental Value is about art and history and emotional openness, but it’s more than anything a playful but also wondrously frank exploration of what it actually means to be family.

Alisson Willmore, New York magazine

Trier’s lightness of touch makes a striking contrast to the film’s emotional weightiness. Death haunts this movie, as it does other of Trier’s features, and while “Sentimental Value” has bursts of pure comedy (it can be very funny), it’s steeped in melancholy… Trier’s filmmaking is always easy to admire, and his facility for shifting among tones and moods is astonishing.

Manohla Dargis, New York Times