‘Sentimental Value’ Review: Stellan Skarsgård Anchors a Tender, Savvy Family Drama

Movie Review: ‘Sentimental Value’ — An Aching, Elegant Portrait of Artists and Family

Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value focuses on a single Norwegian family whose attempts to connect feel, paradoxically, vast and elemental. The film is about life in the arts, the search for meaning and forgiveness, the slipperiness of memory and performance, the weight of home and trauma — and, yes, some truly excellent sweaters.

At its center is Stellan Skarsgård, delivering one of his most affecting performances in years as Gustav Borg, a celebrated director who repeatedly prioritized his work over his family. Gustav is the charismatic, self-absorbed type drawn to intimate creative bonds with strangers while remaining distant from his daughters, Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas).

With his career teetering toward retrospective status, Gustav tries to make amends — and stage a comeback — in the only way he knows: by making another movie. He approaches Nora at a vulnerable moment, shortly after the death of her mother and his ex-wife. Nora, a lauded stage actor who remains mercurial and unreliable, refuses without even reading his script; her anger at his absence is quiet and fierce.

The family home, which has sheltered generations and witnessed both love and wartime trauma (including Gustav’s mother’s imprisonment and torture), functions almost as a character: a physical anchor and a vessel for memory. Gustav wants to use the house as a set, and the project gains momentum when an American star, Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), becomes involved. Rachel’s attempt to inhabit a character inspired by Gustav’s late mother — including dyeing her hair to match Nora’s — introduces uncanny echoes of identity and echoes of Bergman’s Persona.

When Rachel ultimately steps away, Gustav’s tenderness toward her — comforting and unexpectedly fatherly — underscores a painful truth: the care he can offer strangers he cannot give his children.

Among the ensemble, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas quietly stands out. Agnes appears outwardly steady — married with a child, managing daily life — but carries a private hurt: she was briefly her father’s chosen child and then was abandoned. A request to include her young son in Gustav’s film produces a charged, visceral reaction that reveals long-buried pain.

Trier and longtime co-writer Eskil Vogt have crafted a humane, layered story that resists tidy resolutions. The film feels whole and cinematic without leaning on contrived redemptions, allowing relationships to remain unresolved in ways that feel true to life.

Following Trier’s previous hit, The Worst Person in the World, Sentimental Value is a worthy successor: mature, sharp, bittersweet and quietly hopeful. The performances, especially Skarsgård’s, anchor the film’s emotional reach while its insights into art, memory and family linger.

Rating: Four stars out of four. Rated: R — for a sexual reference, some language and brief nudity. Running time: 133 minutes. Release: Neon.