“Sentimental Value”
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Rated: (R)
Released: November 7, 2025
Running Time: 2 hrs 13 min
Trigger Warning: Family dysfunction, mentions of suicide, substance use, and infidelity
Rating: 7/10
There aren’t a whole lot of family drama movies that come out, and even fewer that are enjoyable. “Sentimental Value” has an especially genuine take on the complexity and nuances of turbulent familial relationships. The movie takes place in modern-day Norway, following two sisters, namely the older one, Nora (Renate Reinsve), and their movie director father Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård).
Nora is a young theatre actress who is asked by her father to play the main role in his new movie. This new film is meant to get Gustav’s name back out into the public eye, as his career hit a stall, and he struggles to get funding. Nora rejects him, and the rest of the movie follows as Gustav gets actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) to fill the role, while also trying to mend his relationship with his daughters. The movie was released on November 7, 2025, though it has only just started to play in Michigan theatres. It was directed by Joachim Trier, known for other dramas such as “The Worst Person in the World” (2021) and “Thelma” (2017).
“Sentimental Value” was a solid movie, though it depends on the genre one enjoys to determine if it deserves a rewatch.
It starts with Nora and her sister Agnes (Igna Ibsdotter Lilleaas) as children. The house they live in with their mother and father is gorgeous. It has red panelling all over, with the roof and accents being a raven black. The greenery around this place is also very whimsical and lively, simply a beautiful place to film. The cinematography was perfectly suited to the atmosphere the director was trying to portray. It was like a home video, invoking that melancholic, dreamy, faraway feeling before it grounds itself in reality when the parents divorce. The change between then and now helps to reinforce the distance between Gustav and his daughters, and makes it all more heart-wrenching.
The entire films two hours were filled with drama, from Nora sleeping with her married co-actor, Gustav choosing another actress to play in the role he wrote for Nora and generally just how much the two of them bump heads. At one point, Gustav even says to her that it’s hard to love someone so full of rage, in reference to how aggressive she’s been with him. To which she is rightfully angry with him, since he was an absent father after the divorce.
But the movie makes it clear that even though Gustav did make poor decisions, he has a bit of leeway in that when he was younger, he had found his mother had hanged herself. So it’s less that there is any one antagonist and more that all of the characters are hurt people just trying to navigate their relationships as best they can. This gives way to a much more intriguing film than if it were that the dad were just a horrible person with no rhyme or reason.
Later on, there’s a magical transition between Gustav, Nora, and Agnes’ faces, which further enforces the idea that they are all more similar than they’d like to be. Despite being distant for so long, the daughters are like their dad, and vice versa, making it even more difficult for them to get along, since they’re all hardened by the past and caught up in it. It does feature a satisfying ending, a nice payoff after getting through two hours of tension.
What is interesting is that the entire film is spoken in Norwegian and has English subtitles. This can be difficult to watch with a movie because it requires attention to be on it, lest you miss something someone says, but it wasn’t too big a bother. It can be tough to sit for longer than an hour without a break, so if a long movie is a make it or break it, this one is skippable. The film would be slightly more enjoyable had the director been able to cut off at least 20 minutes, but it was manageable.
“Sentimental Value” was a great take on a family drama where everyone has issues, no one person is the villain, and the conclusion wraps up all the growth they did as people into one nice, complimentary ending.
It came in at a better-than-average 7/10, just considering that the subtitles and sheer length of the film are mild annoyances. But definitely a solid film that explores strained father-daughter relationships, how suicide impacts the victim’s family, and how people can still forgive each other despite being done dirty. An unexpectedly enjoyable time as someone who prefers horror flicks.
