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Norwegian writer/ director Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value will remind many of Ingmar Bergman's most touching and introspective films (Cries and Whispers, Persona, Autumn Sonata) as it recounts with brilliant deliberateness the strained relationship between a famous movie director Gustav (that wonderful Stellan Skarsgård) and his daughters, Nora (an amazing Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (an equally affecting Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas).
Nora is a stage actress whose bouts of paralyzing anxiety are a symptom of deep, troubling wounds she carries, made even more pronounced by the death of their mother. Agnes, a wife and mother, offers Nora support and champions her work in the theater. Their devotion to one another is luminescent.
When Gustav moves back into the family home, he brings a screenplay he has written and wants Nora to star in. Nora refuses to even read it, saying only that she can't work with her father. His abandonment of the family to make movies planted seeds of resentment in Nora, seeds she has watered the many years he's been absent. Perhaps she fears letting the resentment go. She needs it.
Gustav invites an American actress Rachel (Elle Fanning) to take on the role he offered his daughter, clearly in an attempt to wound Nora and pull her back into the project. This move is indicative of Gustav's Machiavellian tendencies, which themselves are rooted in childhood trauma. He is a master at withholding love and disappointing others.
Trier offers audiences a glimpse at how we fail to uphold both personal and universal truths. Rather, we opt for deception to avoid the pain that honesty often brings.
Sentimental Value is a powerful, thoughtful film that nonetheless might be difficult for some because of its tone and pacing.
Nora is a stage actress whose bouts of paralyzing anxiety are a symptom of deep, troubling wounds she carries, made even more pronounced by the death of their mother. Agnes, a wife and mother, offers Nora support and champions her work in the theater. Their devotion to one another is luminescent.
When Gustav moves back into the family home, he brings a screenplay he has written and wants Nora to star in. Nora refuses to even read it, saying only that she can't work with her father. His abandonment of the family to make movies planted seeds of resentment in Nora, seeds she has watered the many years he's been absent. Perhaps she fears letting the resentment go. She needs it.
Gustav invites an American actress Rachel (Elle Fanning) to take on the role he offered his daughter, clearly in an attempt to wound Nora and pull her back into the project. This move is indicative of Gustav's Machiavellian tendencies, which themselves are rooted in childhood trauma. He is a master at withholding love and disappointing others.
Trier offers audiences a glimpse at how we fail to uphold both personal and universal truths. Rather, we opt for deception to avoid the pain that honesty often brings.
Sentimental Value is a powerful, thoughtful film that nonetheless might be difficult for some because of its tone and pacing.
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