Home’s have stories. The opening of Joachim Trier’s latest film Sentimental Value is a dissection of that very idea. A young girl coming to the conclusion that a house is happier as it is used, even if that means scuffed floors and scraped drywall. Empty houses are ominous, often haunted, and regularly dangerous. It’s the effort that we put into building a home that makes it a home. As the protagonist ponders this thought we see her prepping to be in a play and having a full blown panic attack. Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve) is a stage actress, and a talented one at that, even if every once in a while she refused to go on stage unless someone slaps her or fucks her.

We are soon introduced to her sister Agnes Borg (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). The two girls are surprised when at the wake of their mother, their estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgard) shows up. His garrilous attempt to mend his relationship with them does not go far. Agnes is more welcoming than Nora, but Nora does agree to meet with Gustav the next day at a cafe. The gently uncouth demeanor of Gustav begins to color the kind of father he was, or more aptly was not. He flirts with the waitress, he makes a joke that people think he and Nora are on a date. He is incapable of being the father he was supposed to be. But he does offer Nora a part in a film he wrote, Gustav is a famous director, Nora is a famous stage actress, it should all come together. But she refuses.

Gustav’s inability to relay what he needs to to his daughters is both his own fault. He drinks too much, he cavorted with actresses while he was married to Nora and Agnes’ mother, he’s brash and self important. He is so brash and self important that when famous actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) sees one of his films and asks him if he’s working on anything else he attempts to shoehorn her into a film that only he and Nora can give any justice.

It’s Gustav’s attempt to build something outside of himself that is the thrust of the film. We listen to Rachel read the monologues, and walk around the home, and most glaringly perform it all in English as opposed to Nora’s Norwegian that shows how off this movie sounds if it’s not Gustav and Nora doing it together. It’s not until Agnes reads the script and realizes what the film is about that she knows the truth. If their family is ever going to heal then it has to be Nora and Gustav working together.

There are reports of many auteurs spending so much time on their craft that they didn’t have time for family. David Lynch, Jim Henson, Buster Keaton, none of these men were what any would deem family men. They were importantly, not as difficult to be around as it seems Gustav is. But so much of Sentimental Value is about that divide, between making a choice to work on craft, or making a choice to spend time with family. It’s not unlike Jay Kelly in that way, although it’s somehow even more self serious about it. I truly loved Trier’s last film The Worst Person in The World, and I fear I only like Sentimental Value.

3.5/5