Joachim Trier does the near-impossible with Sentimental Value (now streaming on VOD platforms like Amazon Prime Video): direct a worthy follow-up to his 2021 triumph The Worst Person in the World. Both films star Renate Reinsve, who gives the most fascinating performances of anyone in the current cinema, and here, she shares the screen with Stellan Skarsgard in top form, with equally brilliant work from Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, making her international screen debut. The film rode a tsunami-like crest out of Cannes, where it won the Grand Prix, and although that wave of acclaim has shrunk a little here in the thick of awards season, it matters not, because this is one of the best films of 2025.
The Gist: Some films are touted for rendering a location with such observational detail that it becomes a “character.” But before we can even consider pondering the thought, Sentimental Value establishes this beautiful old Oslo home with a crack snaking up from the basement to the roof as a living, breathing thing, via Nora’s (Reinsve) voiceover. She once wrote a school essay intertwining the history of her family home with the emotions the house experiences – her great-grandfather died there, her grandmother was born there, her parents fought there as she and her younger sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) comforted each other in the hall, and the house was sad when it was empty and happy when it was full and it “missed some of the things” her father did once he left the family to throw himself into his career as an internationally renowned film director.
At this present juncture, no true Borgs live in the house. In fact, no one lives in it anymore. Nora and Agnes’ mother has just passed away, and the house is now full of a lot of stuff the women need to divvy up, and a convenient place for the wake. The latter sees their father Gustav (Skarsgard) returning to the home and bringing an air of indeterminate estrangement with him….