FILM REVIEW
SENTIMENTAL VALUE
Rated R
133 Minutes
Released November 7th
This is a classic European-style film focusing on relationships, more intense and intimate than that style usually is, by Norwegian director Joachim Trier. It’s a cinematic tone poem about place, family bonds, and being alive. Nothing is spelled out in the narrative. It is presented as if it is a painting that you observe with your own personal meaning coming to the surface.
The visuals of cinematographer Kasper Tuxen are extraordinary, his camera following every detail of a room, a face, or a grand landscape. A house is the central figure, and every object and surface in its rooms has a role and conveys clearly the backdrop for the emotional exchanges taking place within its rooms.
This is not a unique idea, but here it’s a spectacular device, as this home has witnessed the intimate machinations of so many relationships within its walls that it harbors a sense of immortality. We never see as much of other people’s relationships as does a living space, whether it’s a cozy apartment, a duplex, a townhouse, a bungalow, or a mansion.
The way the camera moves over the “bones” of the house, the outer and inner structure, is almost sensual, and it draws us into the structure as a character with personality. Trier sent location scouts all over Oslo, and in the end, he realized the perfect house was two blocks from his own home – he apologized to the scouts for all their work.
Trier is a native of Oslo, the son of a sound technician and jazz musician. He loved the visuals of directors Antonioni and De Palma and realized that what he needed to learn was character. This film proves that he has mastered that. The acting from each of his stars here is brilliant. At the in-person panel after my screening, Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Rensve, Inga Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning all concurred that Trier creates such an environment of trust on set that they can summon the courage to dig deep into their most sensitive, hidden instincts.
It doesn’t matter that most of the dialogue is in Norwegian with subtitles because the actors convey the meaning of the words with their expressions and body language. Trier is known for working instinctively, without mood boards or storyboards, and there is some rehearsal, but never too much. Sentimental Value is about a father who is a film director and has been absent for much of his two daughters’ lives. He wants to make his final feature about them and must confront the idea that perhaps he doesn’t truly know them.
Rensve, who plays “Nora,” the older sister, is a Norwegian theatre actress who had her film breakthrough in Trier’s The Worst Person in the World in 2021. She won Best Actress at Cannes for that film. The role of Nora was written with her in mind – a celebrated actress who has a paralyzing fear of walking onstage in front of an audience, which reflects her extreme vulnerability and her sense that she did not deserve love.
Lilleaas, as “Agnes,” is the least experienced of the cast. She is also a Norwegian theatre actress who received her BA in Arts & Acting. Trier saw many actors for the role, but when he saw Lilleaas audition, he recognized that she had star power.
Fanning, who plays a movie star brought in to portray “Nora” in the father’s film, perfectly embodies the innocence and bashful awareness of a young star just finding her footing in the world of fame. Fanning has been acting since she was a toddler, when she played little sister to her real-life sister, Dakota, in I Am Sam. One of her first roles was in an Uncrustables commercial, and since then, she has appeared in 61 films and 21 television shows. In her role as “Catherine” in The Great, she proved that she can move adeptly between tragedy and comedy.
Skarsgaard, as the director/father, is perfect. Even though the actor suffered a stroke three years ago, which took his short-term memory, it did not rob him of his ability to adapt, so crucial to acting. Since he can no longer memorize lines, Skarsgaard uses an earpiece which feeds him his words. I did not know this when watching the film, and I never would have guessed from his performance. A reader speaks the lines in an earpiece in a neutral way while his scene partner is saying their lines, so he hears both at once and then speaks, keeping the rhythm of the scene.
That may actually be a more natural way to speak lines. Skarsgaard notes that the stroke may have taken his ability to speak at length, but not his ability to act or the depth of understanding of his lines. His performance is thus a “teaching moment” for us actors. He describes this role as “a paradox of someone who can see people so clearly in his art yet be so clumsy and inept in his real life.”
The concept of the house as the pivotal character is not new. Our environment is something we take for granted from the beginning of our lives, and it affects us more than we realize. If you think back through your life to recall your most impactful moments, chances are many of them occur in a home that you will never forget, even if it’s no longer physically there. I have one of those installed in my memory, and I still wake up dreaming I am walking in its rooms and playing in its garden, and I can feel the wood batten walls and the old carpet, and sense the fresh breeze and warm rocks under the blueberry bushes.
Sentimental Value received a 19-minute standing ovation at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and is the official submission of Norway for the Best International Feature at the 98th Oscars.
Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry, which has been the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a Talent Manager with Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. kboole@gmail.com
