Sentimental Value
“Sentimental Value” is a film about an old filmmaker who is trying to navigate both his familial relationships, and the modern film landscape, and is finding both to be pricklier than he anticipated. His family was somewhat anticipated, but as he prepares to make his first film in a while, it’s not working out quite as he thought. Broken families and the complicated nature of art- aren’t most movies about these very things?
Joachim Trier and his co-writer, Eskil Vogt, have written another messy and moving film about life and its ups and downs after their last collaboration, “The Worst Person in the World.” While my first paragraph focuses on Gustav Borg, the filmmaker trying to recapture his past acclaim (and played by
Stellan Skarsgård in one of the finest performances of his career), it’s as much about his daughters. Nora (Renate Reinsve) is a stage actress whom has taken her neurosis to her art, while Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) is living in the home of their youth with a husband and their son. Their mother has recently passed away, and Gustav comes for the service. He’s also trying to get a new project started, and has eyes on Nora for the lead.
The only thing artists know when it comes to relating to the world is through art. It’s hard not to see tensions in life through the prism of a play we’ve seen, or a TV show or movie we’ve watched, or emotions through a piece of music we connect with. Our easiest way of coming to grips with life is in how our reactions to art guide us in certain instances. When Gustav comes back into their lives after years, with a new and personal screenplay in tow, it’s not hard to see why Nora and Agnes are hesitant to get on board. He has his own vantage point on their life as a family- who is he to presume they might want to be involved? (At one point, Gustav wants Agnes’s son, Erik, to be in the film.) When Nora declines to be in the film- script unread; she doesn’t feel like they could work together- Gustav goes with an American starlet, Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), who is at a screening of one of his earlier films, which he had Agnes in. Rachel is not a stereotypical star, however; as her and Gustav collaborate, and she starts to understand the family dynamics further, she’s still excited by the material, but more uneasy about bringing it to life herself. In addition to Skarsgård, this film features a trio of wonderful performances by women. Reinsve continues her terrific collaboration with Trier; Nora is a mess, but she’s also capable of empathy and understanding. That is especially true with Agnes, whom Lilleaas plays with a sense of responsibility and worry that anchors the film emotionally. As Kemp, Fanning has that natural glow to portray a star, but when she feels like she has to be honest with Gustav, we get the sense it’s one of the most vulnerable times she’s ever had as a person.
“Sentimental Value” is about people who operate within emotional walls they put up, separating them from even those who might be closest to them, and how this one moment forces them to tear them down. I loved every moment.
