Sentimental Value Review: Incredible Acting and Storytelling Make For One of The Best Films of the Year

Director Joachim Trier returns with another big awards contender in Sentimental Value, a story blending together many powerful themes and storylines.

Synopsis:

Sisters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) reunite with their estranged father, the charismatic Gustav (Stellan Skarsgard), a once-renowned director who offers stage actress Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film. When Nora turns it down, she soon discovers he has given her part to an eager young Hollywood star (Elle Fanning).

Cast: Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Stellan Skarsgard, Elle Fanning

Incredible Lead Performance from Reinsve

Credit: Kasper Tuxen/NEON via AP

I don't think I can remember a single time where I've written a review and singled out a single performance. Typically I'd pair each performance together, which I could have done here, but I feel like it would be a disservice to Renate Reinsve after what she did in this movie. It really becomes an arc of many emotions that you can genuinely feel throughout the entire film. You feel like you understand her, but then just as quickly you don't. It feels like there's a lot unsaid about her character, but the subtle references she does with her facial expressions and emotions makes you understand once you look closer. Every time she's on screen with another character, you truly resonate with her emotions and her reactions to everything that's going on in her life. Just the emotional scenes are flat-out great acting, but I find myself just as impressed with some of the slower ones. Even her opening scene in this film has to do with her performing in a play. There's just her incredible portrayal of a wide range of emotions, but then once she gets on stage, it's incredibly commanding and impressive. She has to fit into many different roles in this movie, which is obviously an intentional choice from Trier, and she just never misses a beat.

Just to be a bit vulnerable for a second, her character honestly felt like holding up a mirror to myself. There's the presence of anxiety which is clear and open from the get go. Not only is the anxiety there, she doesn't really know what to do with it or how to address it. There's a subtle part of the performance there where she knows she has those issues, but really pushes them out of focus and you can see how much it affects her. Eventually it's caused her to push almost everyone she cares about, just a devastating realization and arc that you have to watch her go through. Now, a lot of this typically speaks to the screenplay, but here it's really mostly seen through her performance. She reflects the main conflicts of the movie and has an incredibly beautiful arc by the end. I know I seem to be saying it in a lot of my reviews recently, but this really is one of the more impressive performances this year and honestly of the past half decade as well. It's complex, emotional and personal in every possible way.

Quality Supporting Performances All Around

Credit: Kasper Tuxen/NEON via AP

Now that we've gotten Renate's praise laid out, it's time to take a look at the rest of the cast. Frankly, I've only felt even better about each of the performances the longer I've been able to sit with this film. We'll start with Stellan Skarsgard, who is clearly the known commodity out of the whole cast. He's been the favorite for supporting actor at the Oscars ever since awards season began and now I can see why. Like many characters in this movie, you never really know how you are supposed to feel about him. It obviously starts out on a very negative note, but his performance allows you to warm up on him as the movie goes along. The character shouldn't feel super complex on the surface, but it becomes that way because of how Skarsgard acts out the screenplay. Him and Reinsve are incredible scene partners, with their first long scene together just being an absolute clinic from both ends. Also, his character's clear love for film really resonated in an era of mergers and streaming.

Wow, what a year for Elle Fanning. She was already one of my main positives from Predator: Badlands and now with this film she's going to be gunning for awards love. This is such a complicated performance for her because she has to do some real meta acting due to the nature of her character. Her character is attempting to fit into a role that wasn't written for her and a family that she has no prior knowledge of. That makes for some really emotional scenes where she's attempting to grasp the complexities of her role, but just can't get at it. So not only is she acting out the character of Rachel Kemp, but she also has to just fail at reaching the fit of the role that was written for Reinsve's character. It's very multilayered and is a performance that's only grown on me since I walked out of the theater. Same goes for Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, who probably has the least to do out of the cast, but brings it whenever she is required. Her character has suffered the greatest consequences of the fallout of the family, but it's not easy to see on the surface. Only when we see her situation reach a breaking point with both Reinsve and Skarsgard can we truly start to understand the trajectory of her life. Potentially the best scene in the film comes towards the end where she is just truly heartbreaking with her emotions. It's a cast that isn't really fully of big names but stood out in every way and all should be recognized for their efforts.

Multiple Powerful Themes At Play

Credit: NEON

When we look past the acting (hard to do) and just focus on the themes at play, I will continue to sing the praises of this movie. Going into this, I was wondering how predictable it would be. With the theme of family at the forefront I was somewhat worried they'd fall into certain tropes and not really offer any nuanced approach at family as a theme. I was completely wrong because the thing about this movie is that it doesn't shove any new perspective in your face. It's not telling you that you should act a certain way with your family and everything will work out okay. It's saying that families are hard. Life is even harder. Things will change, people will drift apart, but what matters is how we respond when those changes and people come back around. Do we forgive them? Do they know what's best for us? The characters in this film answer those questions by the end, but that doesn't mean that is the end all be all for everybody in the audience. It's meant to ask those hard questions and hope you can find an different perspective that you didn't have before this film. I think anyone that has ever dealt with any family problems in their life can relate to the main through line of this film and I give immense credit to the filmmakers for how they handled it in this movie.

For a lot of this movie, you'll be waiting for that "gut punch" scene. For there to be a moment where the movie just emotionally breaks you and everything makes sense. To be honest, I'm not even sure that'll come for everybody. It never fully got there for me. There were moments, like the scene between Lilleaas and Reinsve I mentioned earlier, but at the end of the day this movie didn't need that emotional high to make it work. It brings in these themes, tells them in a compelling way, then leaves it to you to figure out what to do with all those thoughts. The screenplay for this is just absolutely stellar, again proving that Trier is a incredible talent in this industry. Trier's direction also has many noticeable shots that really emphasize the symbolism. There's using the house as a storytelling tool, blending together the members of the family in one shot and using split items/figures to show how divided everyone is. It's really a masterpiece in filmmaking that should be appreciated as much as possible.

Even More Time Needed To Digest The Meaning

Credit: Kasper Tuxen

I kind of alluded this earlier, but this is a movie that has taken me a good second to fully appreciate and understand. What I first thought about it has changed many times since I originally watched it last month. I've changed my own thoughts and then also read people online interpreting things completely differently than I did. At the end of the day, Sentimental Value emphasizes the beauty of what cinema can do as a storytelling tool. It lays out the story and characters for you, taking you on a journey that can be whatever you make it. There's themes there that were so clear to me when I walked out of the theater, but I've still been able to peel back more layers in the weeks following. Every good movie will leave you thinking, for whatever reason, and this film really plays with that idea to perfection. It's a film that I've really sat with for an amount of time that I can only remember happening with a handful of films in the past few years (Sinners, looking at you). The storytelling is so subtle that each person will leave with a different appreciation and connection to what happened. I just really found myself connecting with this film and I'm sure my opinion will continue to change in the months to come.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, Sentimental Value really tugged on my heartstrings and quickly stood out as one of the films of the year. It forces us to think on our relationships and what we should do with them. The entire thing became very personal to me and I think this is going to be one of the defining films of this decade once it's all said and done. If you are able to see this film, do it!

Rating: 5/5 Stars

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