Review of Sentimental Value / Affeksjonsverdi, directed by Joachim Trier

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I feel like a lot of my blog introductions, especially when it comes to movies, have been lamenting on the fact I don’t have a ton of time lately. I used to work as a film critic (which, in fact, was so incredibly underpaid that I now make more off of this blog’s display ads than I ever did publishing anywhere else), and then when I was in graduate school I was writing a lot about film, so I used to watch so many movies.

But now I work an 8-5, come home, and then doom scroll my evenings away instead of watching the movies I used to love so dearly. And recently I realized I want to stop doing that, so I’ve set limits on my phone and am fully prepared to sit back and watch more movies and read more books in order to feed my brain.

Sentimental Value is actually a movie I wanted to see at my local theater with my subscription, but the only time they ever played it in my area was when it was up for Oscars. And even then, when they had showtimes, it was when I was at work.

So I patiently waited and decided to see what would happen in terms of streaming platforms. Lo and behold, my patience paid off and I ended up being able to watch the movie on Hulu after some time.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to ramble too much.

Two sisters grapple with their famous director father’s ambitions, especially when it comes to their childhood home and family trauma.

This movie begins when the two sisters, Nora and Agnes, are adults with thriving careers. Agnes is a historian and Nora a prolific stage actress (who happens to have stage fright—and an affair with one of her coworkers). They were raised by their mother Sissel, as their father, Gustav, left Norway after the divorce and became a more successful film director.

So Nora and Agnes was raised in Gustav’s family home with their mother, but recently she passes away. Gustav has come back to Norway to reclaim his childhood home, but his daughters are more than resentful when it comes to his fatherly habits and drinking problem.

When he comes back into town, he tries to reconcile with his daughters, but he’s unable to find the right language to speak to them properly. He does have a relationship with Agnes’ son Erik, as they share a common language: the world of movies. Gustav’s also struggling with the decline of his own career, as it’s getting harder and harder to secure funding for movies.

His newest script, which hasn’t found financial backing yet, is about his mother Karin. Back during World War II she was involved with the resistance, was captured by the Nazis, and tortured for information. This eventually led to her suicide in the house when he was a young boy, which has definitely shaped some of his tendencies.

Gustav wants Nora to play Karin, but what ends up happening is a popular actress from America, Rachel Kemp, catches his eye at a film festival. He ends up giving her the role, then Netflix wants to fund the project because of her involvement. However, Gustav ends up clashing with the Netflix people greatly, and his usual cinematographer isn’t in good health.

Rachel also doesn’t speak Norwegian, so the script needs to be translated. She doesn’t feel comfortable with this fact, and Nora observes that Gustav actually treats Rachel better than his own daughters. Nora’s beau ends up getting a divorce, but he doesn’t want to fully commit to Nora.

She falls into a depression after that, and Gustav ends up telling her it’s because she has a lot of rage inside. Agnes then gets mad at him because he pulls Erik into the film without asking her—turns out he did that when she was a child. Rachel then realizes she doesn’t belong in this script, and that everything Gustav does it to make her like Nora. She leaves the film.

Gustav goes heavily drinking, gives a middle finger to the sky, then collapses. He’s sent to the hospital. Agnes goes to the National Archives to try and find information about their family, then realizes she found her grandmother’s statement. She then reads Gustav’s script and realizes all of this is family trauma. The script is also about his regret on what happened with Nora and his relationship.

The final scene in the script is about the suicide, and it shows similar elements to Nora’s attempt (which she never told Gustav about). Agnes tells Nora to read the script, then she decides to play Karin after doing so. Gustav sells the family home to make the movie, with Nora as Karin and Erik as Gustav.

The film ends with Gustav and Nora looking at each other on set after the final take.

Overall Thoughts

I had a feeling I was going to like this movie going into it, even though I had no idea what to expect. I believe this is technically my first Norwegian movie, which is shocking—I’ve watched other movies from the region before.

Regardless, there’s a lot of emotional weight and themes packed into this movie. All of the actors do a fantastic job with the script, which is a bit loaded considering it has the present moment in addition to the past looming over them all like a shadow. I think this must’ve been a challenging one to work with.

All in all this is such a well-written movie, and it deserved all of the accolades it received, I think if you haven’t seen it already, go and do so. Don’t just read a summary on the Internet—experience it for yourself. That’s how movies are meant to be enjoyed!

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