Movie: Sentimental Value

The complex relationship between a father and his two daughters is at the heart of the Norwegian film Sentimental Value.

It tells of the relationship between Nora Borg (Renate Reinsveher) and her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) and their filmmaker father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård).  The relationship between the two sisters also is highlighted in the 135 minute film.

Nora is an established Oslo stage actress while her younger sister Agnes has chosen a different career path and is an historian.  While Agnes seemingly has a happy family life with her young son, Nora is having an affair with a married man and fellow actor Jakob (Anders Danielsen Lie).

Despite her great success Nora suffers from terrible stage fright and past mental health issues. Given the opening of the film it’s clear much of this is due to the conflict within the family home as a result of the volatile relationship between her mother and father.

Although the sisters are markedly different, the two are close and deeply intertwined, having been raised by their psychotherapist mother after Gustav walked out on the family. When the conflict was at its worse it was Nora who protected Agnes but now the roles have seemingly been reversed.

Gustav re-enters the sisters’ lives after the death of their mother seemingly to pay his respects. But it seems he also has another reason for reappearing – he wants to cast Nora in his comeback movie which he has written specifically for her to star in.

While Nora initially agrees to meet with Gustav after he raises his movie idea she makes it clear she wants to have nothing to do with her father or his movie.

Hearing he wants to shoot in the house where they grew up — a two-storey Dragestil mansion –  is just as abhorrent to Nora as working with her father given her memories of her early years in the house.

After Nora rejects his advances, Gustav, who hasn’t made a film for 15 years, offers the lead role to American star Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) who he meets at the Deauville Film Festival during a retrospective of his work.

While initially enthusiastic thanks to her love of Gustav’s past work, Rachel realises there’s more to the movie than meets the eye given Gustav’s relationship with Nora and his family.

The film Gustav is making is a deeply personal one that touches on Nora’s life and Gustav’s mother who died by suicide when he was a child in the house he and the girls were raised in.

As Gustav works on the film, Agnes looks into the reason for Gustav’s mother’s suicide which is said to have occurred as a result of her being tortured in World War II.

Eventually Gustav’s demands on Rachel become too much for her, leaving the fate of the movie and Gustav’s future in Nora’s hands.

While the themes of Sentimental Value– family trauma, the complexity of the parent-child and sibling bonds and the perils of an autobiography as a creative atonement – could have resulted in a movie which felt more like a soap opera than a thought provoking drama, this isn’t the case here.

Much of the credit for this must go to director Joachim Trier (who with Eskil Vogt co-wrote the script) and the performances of its stars. Interestingly Trier wrote the movie to give Reinsve, who starred in his previous worldwide success of The Worst Person in the World, another character to play.

While her performance is excellent the work of Lilleaas and Skarsgård ensure Sentimental Value offers a moving and believable examination of a family severely impacted by its history.

It’s no surprise to see Sentimental Value receiving numerous Golden Globe nominations including best drama. Joachim Trier has been nominated for best director,  Renate Reinsve for best actress in a drama while Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas have all been nominated in best supporting actor categories.

*Photo credit: Kasper Tuxen Andersen.

Sentimental Value is now showing in  Australian cinemas. Check the Sentimental Value website for more information.