No matter where you come from or what kind of life you lead, chances are you have drama with your family. Daddy issues, mommy issues, general past trauma — it all comes part and parcel with being a part of a family. Joachim Trier’s latest film, Sentimental Value (Affeksjonsverdi), tackles these elements when Stellan Skarsgård’s Gustav Berg decides to direct a film after a 15-year hiatus and wants his estranged daughter Nora (Renate Reinsve) to star in it.
This return to filmmaking opens up a whole new can of worms for the Berg family as they are forced to face unresolved issues and try to heal from years of trauma and damage caused by Gustav’s abandonment of the family and his divorce from their mother. Trier’s drama, co-written with Eskil Vogt, targets the thorny side of family relationships and highlights both the best and worst moments a family can have in this slow-burn drama.

Where Sentimental Value soars is when it gets into the nitty-gritty of the Borg family. Gustav, Nora, and his younger daughter Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) have a caustic relationship. Gustav stepped out on his family when the girls were young, leaving Nora to help raise Agnes. Gustav, who often put his children in his films, seems to only find interest in them when they’re in front of the camera. As they’ve grown, Nora’s found a career on the stage, which is something Gustav also has no interest in, and the gap between them widens. While Agnes’ relationship with her father is far less tense, Nora is quick to turn on her father. Their estrangement runs deeper, and when he comes to her to ask her to star in his film, she doesn’t even bother reading the script before turning him down.
Trier does a fantastic job of showcasing just how complicated and layered the dynamic between these family members is. The best parts of Sentimental Value come when Skarsgård and Reinsve face off and confront each other for their past wrongs. However, the 135-minute film does not solely focus on this family drama. Instead, there’s commentary about theater versus film, about films being shown in the cinema versus on streaming, and all of that takes away from the story.
It adds unnecessary fat to an already complex story that might do better simply by removing it and honing in on the soul of the story. It often feels like when Trier is trying to make a statement about streaming — Gustav’s film is being produced by Netflix — it’s a little tongue-in-cheek, but it doesn’t match the general tone of the rest of the film and ends up holding it back. It becomes a weight that drags the film rather than helps uplift it.
Stellan Skarsgård Is the Best Part of ‘Sentimental Value,’ With Renate Reinsve Being a Close Second

Image via Mubi 

Renate Reinsve is no stranger to working with Joachim Trier, having collaborated with him on both Oslo, August 31st and The Worst Person in the World. And while Reinsve delivers an emotional and charged performance as Nora, it is Skarsgård who ultimately deserves flowers for his performance as Gustav. Although Nora is the main character of Sentimental Value, Gustav is not only the catalyst, but he’s also the character all the other characters orbit.
A lesser performance would have weakened the movie, but Skarsgård can be both emotionally fragile and even pitiful at times, while also having moments of cutting cruelty and spitefulness. Gustav is a fully fleshed-out character, nuanced in a way that makes him both difficult to love but also difficult to hate.
His best scenes are both with Reinsve and with Elle Fanning, who plays the American actress Rachel Kemp. When Nora turns down Gustav’s request to star in his film, he casts Rachel instead. Their burgeoning friendship offers insight into Gustav’s process, but it also shows us a softer side to him as a creative director. He’s thoughtful and generous with Rachel and is honest with her about her performance when she begins to feel intimidated by the project.
‘Sentimental Value’ Struggles With a Slow Start, but It Takes Off by the End

Image via Mubi

If there is one flaw that Sentimental Value has, it’s with the initial introduction of the film. Very slow to start, the film takes a while before it can fully dive deep into the backstory of the Borg family. When it does start looking into the past of the family, including looking into Gustav’s mother’s past and his relationship with Agnes’ son, the story becomes more nuanced and more layered. But the film first needs to introduce Nora and set up the story, as this is the part that genuinely drags.
Unfortunately, Nora is not the most compelling character, at least in the beginning. In the end, when we learn more about her and learn about a profoundly momentous moment in her life, it changes how we see everything about her, but Trier waits too long to share this and, while it has an emotional impact at the end, it might have been better served to share this development earlier and watching how the characters navigate with this knowledge.

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Too many of the best scenes of the film lie in the final moments, and the slow-burn toward this ending can feel exhausting. Thankfully, Trier’s camera work, especially in the final scene of the film, where we get to watch a film within a film, is fantastic, and it is truly mesmerizing at points.
Trier’s movie is emotional and cuts to the heart of something deeply relatable. We might not all have fathers who are famous directors, we might not all be stage actors with anxiety, but we all have these complicated relationships with our family. Trier’s understanding of complex family relationships and his ability to portray them honestly make this yet another win for him and a solid entry into his filmography.

Sentimental Value

Joachim Trier’s latest film tackles family drama and depression with an aging film director and his stage acting daughter.

Release Date

August 20, 2025

Runtime

132 Minutes

Director

Joachim Trier

Writers

Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas

Agnes

Pros & Cons

Stellan Skarsgård captures all the layers of a complex father figure.
The film takes family drama to new heights with nuanced and multigenerational conflicts and storylines.

The film’s beginning is very slow and much of the strongest scenes are loaded at the end of the film, which ruins the pacing at times.