Sensitively told and boasting excellent performances, Sentimental Value is a very personal film about a fractured family coming together as it experiences love and pain from the past.
In Oslo, an old house serves as the setting for a family specifically the childhood home for two sisters. Nora (Renate Reinsve), a local stage actress, and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), a wife and mother, are reconciling life without their deceased mother, and soon they are visited by their estranged father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), a famous film director, who has a special script for his next film that he has offered to American star, Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning). With casting taking shape, through a series of flashbacks and remembrances, it becomes apparent that it tells a story that is very personal even autobiographical. As he tries to make his film, he and Nora are inexorably linked by his script which serves as a metaphor and catalyst moving forward.
The film deals with familial bonds, suicide, reconciliation, end of life, and the choices we make in life. It also serves as a multigenerational mystery going as far back as World War II that slowly explores pieces of lives torn apart and rearranged. Reinsve is excellent as she embodies a complex character who suffers from stage fright, has an affair, and is still struggling with the past especially her animosity toward her father whose absence has hardened her. Veteran Skarsgård has his best role in years, while Fanning makes a strong impression in her limited screen time.
A Norwegian film
partly in English,
this deliberately paced film is always searching for the truth and emotion of
the moment. It’s a tale that transcends
language barriers and speaks universally of the relationship between father and
daughter.
****
of *****
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