Sentimental Value

A haunting study of how homes remember—and how families try to forget

The poetic question of whether spaces have memory is an intriguing one, and one that spiritually accrues many added layers regarding the trauma or unsettled nature that certain objects or locations retain. Yet from an emotional standpoint, spaces—especially a home—can become symbols of the tangled web of relationships, families, and inner demons that one fights within them. These spaces can also carry literal and symbolic echoes of a past relative, whose steps and sufferings spookily mirror your own. Such is the premise at the center of Sentimental Value (2025).

Sentimental Value follows Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve), an actress, and her estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), a faded filmmaker. Upon the death of Nora’s mother, she and her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) want to sell the family home. However, the house remains under Gustav’s name, and he reenters their lives with the intention of using the home to make an intimate film—with Nora as his lead. After she refuses, Nora watches as Gustav recruits Hollywood actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), and a debate quickly emerges about the ownership of stories and the exorcising of the past.

Sentimental Value is the reunion and follow-up between Joachim Trier and Reinsve after the brilliant The Worst Person in the World (2021). Trier continues to work within a familiar lane, digging into the internal struggles and family identities that define his previous films. Yet Sentimental Value delivers one of his most complex and tangled explorations of the weight of family trauma and the fraying of bonds it can cause. We have a more expanded viewpoint, as the film rotates between multiple protagonists, delving into the minds and tortured souls of Nora, Gustav, and Agnes in turn. This helps illustrate the echoing trauma and pain that families can carry, and the tragic solitude that can result. In many ways, Sentimental Value is a gentle look at depression and the need to confront and identify the pressure points in the past in order to begin healing—healing that can then spread outward to others.

Trier continues to employ an elegant restraint in his handling of his actors and plot, never opting for a flashy explosion of emotion or explanation, but instead trusting a purely visual language to transmit the indescribable. A small moment when a cigarette shared between Nora and Gustav after his failed attempt at gift-giving to his grandson, shows this beautifully. With just glances and sighs, Trier and his performers transmit a compassion and flicker of joy returning to their relationship. Trier uses performance and theatricality to a meta extent as well: Nora is largely a theater actress, yet we see her unmasked when she suffers panic attacks backstage before a performance. We also watch Gustav undergo catharsis as he rehearses with Rachel, recognizing the role he wrote has echoes of both his mother and daughter.

Trier delivers an emotionally heavy and intricate film, yet by expanding his purview to more characters he loses some of the empathic identification that proved so crucial in films like The Worst Person in the World, which seeps into your very bone marrow. With each sequence of Nora or Gustav, we slowly settle back into their emotional plights and journeys, yet we are jarringly cut away when switching to the next perspective. This does not render the film confusing or cold, but it does make you feel more like an observer than a participant. As such, Sentimental Value keeps you at a distance instead of letting you fully in. I especially wanted to continue spending time with Nora, as she juggled the different masks and the heavy pull of her past; albeit this was also due to Reinsve’s exceptional performance as well. The Norwegian actress was relaunched after The Worst Person in the World, and I’m so glad she’s receiving increasing opportunities, showcasing a range, charisma, and minute handling of internal storms that are always astounding to behold. Her partnership with Trier is proving incredibly fruitful, and I only hope their collaborations continue. Skarsgård is incredibly solid as well, delivering one of his best performances in years and showcasing in Gustav a last desperate attempt to use his art to heal and reconnect.

In the end, Sentimental Value is a weighty and brilliantly performed film from Trier. It doesn’t reach the heights of The Worst Person in the World, largely due to a bifurcated emotional focus that prevents it from latching onto your heartstrings in quite the same way. Nevertheless, even from a more distanced approach, the way Trier weaves the power of space, memory, and the ability to see one another is impressively executed and delivered with a characteristically Norwegian restraint.

8.5/10