Film directors can be difficult people – especially if you have to live with one. Just ask Nora and Agnes. Their father, the celebrated Scandinavian auteur Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård – “Dune”), was barely part of their lives as they grew up – always absent on another film project. It became too much for their mother, who divorced Gustav and raised the girls herself.
This is what we glean from the early scenes in Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value.”
The film opens with the family house, an ornate dark red and purple gingerbread creation that has been in the family since its construction. The house has a flaw however: the foundation is cracked and that crack spreads up and up through the structure, synonymous with the flaw in the family, that has spread on and on through the generations.
We meet Nora (Renate Reinsve – “Armand”) on opening night of a Chekhov play in which she is the lead – and is having a panic attack. She is virtually forced finally onto the stage and the audience raves over her performance. However, she is deeply unhappy with her life and career despite her success – a success unrecognized by her father.
Then, when her mother dies, we meet her younger sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – “A Beautiful Life”) who is married and has a young son. Unexpectedly, their long absent father arrives at the reception, but not at the funeral. The reason for his arrival is soon exposed: Gustav has written a screenplay specifically for Nora, whom he wants to play the lead. The character is disturbingly like Gustav’s mother, who committed suicide in the house when he was a boy. But when Nora refuses, saying she could never work with her father, and accusing him of deserting the family, Gustav turns a chance meeting with a popular American film actress, Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning – “A Complete Unknown”), into an opportunity to get Rachel to play the part.
From this point on, we see the working out of old resentments and disappointments as the leads interact with each other, trying to find some common ground that will hold the family together.
Writers Trier and Eskil Vogt (“The Worst Person In the World”) have woven a tapestry of emotion, intricately delineating the recognized – and unrecognized – pain of years of estrangement in a low keyed, Scandinavian way.
We get subtle interpretations by all the performers, especially Reinsve and Scarsgard. Her need to re-establish a grounded relationship is palpable, while he, caught in his admitted habit of casting aside relationships as he moves from project to project, wants to change but doesn’t know how. We are also treaterd to excellent cinematography throughout, and a fine score as well.
This is classic European filmmaking, with as much meaning held in the long silent takes as there is in the dialogue. This may be something that modern mass audiences will find at least frustrating and even worse, boring. But like masterful portrait painting, the end result is worth the long wait.
“Sentimental Value” is in Norwegian with subtitles and English. It is Norway’s entry in the 2026 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Picture.
Runtime: Two hours, 13 minutes
Availability: In theaters
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