AbbyNormal Reviews EP11 - Sentimental Value

2025 film directed by Joachim Trier, starring Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning, winner of the Special Jury Grand Prix at the 78th Cannes Film Festival and the 2026 Oscar Award for Best International Feature Film for Norway.

Welcome to the eleventh episode of AbbyNormal Reviews where I share thoughts on movies I watch.

Sentimental Value tells the story of the relationship between director Gustav and his two daughters, Agnes and Nora, the first one stable and with an orderly life, the latter on a collision course with her father and with existence itself.

It focuses on the absence of a father figure to guide the lives of the two sisters, abandoned with their mother after a violent separation.

The film centers on a house. Everything takes place there, everything culminates there.

From the very beginning, following the story of the two sisters, we're overcome by a sense of nostalgia that we can't yet pinpoint.

Thanks to the work of photography and set design, every scene shot within those walls becomes nostalgic, saturated with an almost melancholic feeling.

The film is slow, the scenes take their time, nothing is rushed. This allows the viewer to immerse themselves in the film, process what's happening along with the characters and have time to reflect.

Everything is made easier by the great characterization of the characters, the story is clear and linear, which allows the viewer to concentrate on what lies beneath, on the feelings that each character experiences and the reason for them, making them identify even more with them.

The central relationship is that of father and daughter, with the first absent and the latter no longer wanting him in her life.

We find it easy to understand both sides, yet, despite the seemingly distant relationship until the end, we know that it doesn't matter who's right and who's wrong; what we hope for most is reconciliation.

The film highlights this relationship by using the father's job. Gustav decides to shoot a film in their home with the character of his mother as protagonist, but which has much in common with the story of his daughter Nora. The two figures merge as we learn more about the film, but the seed was planted from the beginning when Gustav says he wrote it specifically for his daughter Nora.

We truly realize this after Nora and Rachel, the actress who replaced her after she initially refused, recite the same monologue.

We're shown Rachel's first, but we immediately sense she's acting; she can't quite get into character and this is later confirmed by the actress herself. Even though she starts crying toward the end of the line, it still doesn't leave us with the feeling she was hoping for.

Quite the opposite of when Nora reads it. Her tears are real, unlike Rachel's.

This is the exact moment when, as a viewer, you want nothing more than to see her as the protagonist in her father's film.

If, like me, you have a sister, then another striking relationship is that between Nora and Agnes. Two very different personalities, but they are always there for each other. When Nora needs support, she turns to Agnes, and she always waits for her with open arms. We feel as if Agnes is the one with the less disastrous life of the two, with everything completely in order, but we see in the end that she too suffered, but found in her sister a reason not to give up. In short, their relationship is the most genuine and stable in the film, a reminder that in siblings you always have an accomplice, because deep down they are a part of you.

In the finale, we see the house being renovated. This is sudden, unexpected, and leaves a sense of emptiness and sadness in the viewer, who had learned to see in it the emotional connection the protagonists share.

The next scene shows Nora saying goodbye to her nephew as he leaves the house. Immediately afterward, she enters a room, the one whose door alone makes us gasp. The room where Gustav's mother committed suicide. We assume she, too, wants to commit suicide, but we don't fully understand why.

While we're too busy trying to figure out what we've missed, we notice the strange coloration of the world outside the house. Completely blue. We realize we're on a set. Nora has finally accepted the part in her father's movie.

Sentimental Value isn't Trier's first film to explore those feelings that simply can't be described. From Reprise (2008) to his latest, The Worst Person in the World (2021), the director grapples with the constant frustration of not finding the words to express one's state of mind.

Sentimental Value tells us about that loved one we can't communicate with.

We see it in two ways: on the one hand, Gustav imagines his daughters as if he had written them himself, constantly disappointed by reality; on the other, Nora feels the overwhelming need to be seen for who she really is, without ever being able to express this need vocally.

It's not easy to pinpoint exactly what these "sentimental values" are, but the ending is certainly what encapsulates the entire film. That final look between father and daughter, who finally see each other clearly, perhaps for the first time.