I went into SENTIMENTAL VALUE expecting just another actorโs showcase. Technically, I wasnโt wrong, but what I found was so much more profound. Writer/director Joachim Trier beautifully shows that, no matter how painful generational trauma may be, art has the power to heal.
As I watch my 3-year-old grow, I canโt help but wonder what invisible trauma I might be passing on to him. I listen to a lot of parenting podcasts. However, trauma and children blaming their parents seems inevitable. My divorced parents always took me to the movies. Sitting together in the dark, it felt like the magic of the big screen could heal our deepest wounds. That sense of wonder is something Iโll never forget. Itโs a legacy I want to pass down to my son as he grows up and learns that “all of life’s riddles are answered in the movies (someday, heโll know what film that line comes from).
Why do I bring this up? Because SENTIMENTAL VALUE captures that concept, with a unique twist. The father (Stellan Skarsgรฅrd in an award-worthy performance full of regret and sadness) is a famous film director, while his two daughters, Nora (Renate Reinsve – also in an award-worthy performance) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), are left to untangle which traumas belong to him, and which are their own.
Skarsgรฅrd and Reinsve are reason enough to see SENTIMENTAL VALUE, but the filmโs setting is just as powerful. The familyโs house is overflowing with memories and feels genuinely lived-in. At times, it reminded me of the soulfulness in a Mike Flanagan film, minus the horror and with an arthouse spirit.
Final Thought: SENTIMENTAL VALUE is a film whose message and haunting performances will stay with me for a long time. Itโs not one Iโd revisit often, yet it is a film I will share with my 3-year-old when heโs older to talk about the traumas we inherit. And that’s the magic of cinema, and why SENTIMENTAL VALUE will be talked about so much this award season.
Itโs available in limited theaters now.
