Sentimental Value/Affeksjonsverdi (2025)

I remember being taken off guard by just how much The Worst Person in the World affected me. I didn't know exactly what to make of it when I first saw it and over time it has just continued to find its way into my film memory. It can be hard for a film maker to follow up a breakthrough film like that, a film that brings them so much attention and acclaim, especially a film that holds up so well. So I was perhaps a bit cautious, although excited, about Sentimental Value, his first film since then, and a film which demonstrates Trier's (as well as cowriter, Vogt's) incredible promise as a film maker. 

Sentimental Value is an intricately woven and intimately perceptive portrait of a family, a father and two sisters, whose lives are intersecting through their art and their resentments. It would have been easy for this particular story to feel overdramatized and sensational but Trier and Vogt craft it in such a way that it feels so richly honest. The themes of estrangement and regret should feel so rote. It's not like they are themes we've never explored before. But there is such a freshness to this film's perspective that it felt like it was the first time I was watching a father-struggling-to-reconnect-with-his-adult-daughter story. 

Much of this has to do with the performances. Reinsve, Fanning, and Skarsgård are all incredible actors but they each give some of their best work here, especially the latter. This may be my favourite performance I've seen him give. The film draws some serious attention to its actors' performances. The film is about actors, and we see them "acting" at points in the movie. The film moves between the constructed world of performance and real reacting. There are moments we aren't sure which is which. To rise to this occasion as well as this case does is quite remarkable. 

What is amazing here is how well put together this film is. Every scene seems thought out to be placed and framed exactly as it is, feeding into the story and the emotional power because of how it is shot, edited, and set into the narrative. There is a self-consciousness to Sentimental Value which doesn't take you out of the story but has the opposite effect of bringing you into it deeper. 

While Sentimental Value has all the hallmarks of the sort of cinema a film studies class would want to pull apart, the film also never feels unwatchable. It is engrossing from frame one and tells an emotionally satisfying story that breaks you heart and soothes it a little. There is a lot of critical hype built up around this film and it is all deserved. But it is also a sweet, lovely little movie that will make you so glad you watched it. 

Sentimental Value

Starring: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning, Anders Danielsen Lie, Cory Michael Smith

Director: Joachim Trier

Writers: Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier