Superlatives start to seep and saturate from the first scene of SENTIMENTAL VALUE, a cinematic sack full of Scandi goodness, a general theatrical release that proves the adage of saving the best for last. For this masterpiece surely ranks with the best of the year.
From writer-director Joachim Trier creator of The Worst Person in the World and Oslo, August 31, comes a family drama about two close-knit sisters and the absent father who re-enters their lives, exploring the possibilities of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Building on the success of The Worst Person in the World, Trier reunites with Renate Reinsve to follow up the Academy Award–nominated sensation, this time exploring more mature themes: residual family trauma, the artistic temperament, the complexity of the parent-child (and sibling) bond, and the perils of autobiography as creative atonement.
SENTIMENTAL VALUE opens on Nora Borg sensationally played by Reinsve. In the film’s opening scene, Nora, an established Oslo stage actress, is undergoing stage fright andit seems she will do anything not to appear on stage, but once she does, she brings down the house. It is art imitating life imitating art in revolutionary revelation. This scene alone is worth the price of admission.
Nora’s younger sister Agnes, superbly played by Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas has chosen family life over film and theatre. Though markedly different, the two are close and deeply intertwined, having been raised by a single mother after their filmmaker father’s departure years earlier.
Seemingly out of nowhere, their revered and renowned film maker father Gustav, another stellar turn from Stellan Skarsgård, attempts to cast Nora in his comeback film, old wounds bleed anew; Nora rejects his offer, prompting the isolated patriarch to cast American star Rachel Kemp (a career highlight for Elle Fanning), who gradually comes to realise she has unwittingly become part of a deeply personal film drama.
SENTIMENTAL VALUE has more layers than the richest lasagne, a sauce sourced from Strindberg, Ibsen, Chekov and Bergman and thoroughly modern without a hint of inhibition from this adventurous director.
Discreetly superb pedigree performances, deft writing and direction make SENTIMENTAL VALUE a cinematic experience beyond value.
