Sentimental Value (Affeksjonsverdi) – Film Review
Reviewed by Damien Straker on the 21st of December 2025
Madman presents a film by Joachim Trier
Written by Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier
Produced by Maria Ekerhovd and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar
Starring Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning
Cinematography Kasper Tuxen
Edited by Olivier Bugge Coutté
Music by Hania Rani
Rating: M
Running Time: 135 minutes
Release Date: the 26th of December 2025
Danish-Norwegian director Joachim Trier has assembled four exquisite performances for his new film Sentimental Value (Affeksjonsverdi). He previously made Oslo, August 31st (2011) and the visually imaginative romantic drama The Worst Person in the World (2021). Both featured actress Renate Reinsve. The latter was about how a woman’s unresolved tension with her father affected her relationships.
Trier and Reinsve effortlessly revisit the distance between a father and his daughters and personal regrets. More specifically, Trier’s film reveals how genuine art and great filmmaking are entrenched in real pain and memories. The story is beautifully acted and successfully probes how the creative process attracts and deters those searching for authenticity.
The story opens with a manic, exciting sequence involving a stage play. An experienced Norwegian actress named Nora (Reinsve) is hiding backstage and reluctant to perform. The stagehands even physically restrain her before she can escape the building! She calms herself by kissing a married man named Jakob and then giving a rousing performance. Nora is the daughter of Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), a famous filmmaker. He once cast his other daughter, Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), in his World War II film when she was a child.
Having written a promising new screenplay, Gustav pleads with Nora to star in the lead role, but she angrily declines. His absence from the women’s childhoods still burns. Searching for a new lead, Gustav meets an American actress, Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning). Their professional relationship is so amicable she agrees to star. Later, the role’s intensity prompts her to start reconsidering her commitment. Gustav also wrestles with Netflix overlooking a full theatrical run and reuniting his ageing cinematographer.
Trier’s deft stylistic choices inform the storyline’s thematic aims. The opening scene is a montage of the family home and is central to the overall through-line. The ownership of this home across different generations reflects how Gustav’s film is engrained in family history and trauma. For example, a troubling scene of attempted suicide will be shot there.
The exterior shots of the family home are photographed by Trier using lush, natural colour tones. By contrast, the narrow interiors are colder and muted. The walls are pale and painted milk white. The juxtaposition is deliberate. The garden area represents the idealised view of the family. Meanwhile, the inside reflects the cold lingering feelings of absence.
The visual motif of the window is pivotal to the story’s dramatic binary. As the story progresses Rachel, an outsider, learns about the family’s painful history. There are other deliberate visual touches, including the rapid-cutting when Nora panics backstage. The large, coloured umbrellas during a beach scene also infer Rachel’s sheltered Hollywood life. Having her leave in a horse-drawn carriage infers a fairytale-like bond with Gustav.
Sentimental Value also showcases a quartet of strong adult performances. Since the late 1960s, Stellan Skarsgård’s career has shifted between European and American roles. Gustav is one of his greatest performances. He veers between intense family resentment and being incredibly funny and charming. His flirtations with a waitress underline his colourful past. Mentoring Rachel before conceding she is miscast also shows his maturity.
All the characters realise meaningful art is authentic. Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas humanise this theme through subtle, affected, and melancholic performances. Reinsve makes Nora’s anguish over her absent father overt. The pain is raw, especially when reliving a highly traumatic memory. Lilleaas contains Agnes’ grievances before powerfully reigniting them. Rachel marks Elle Fanning’s strongest performance since 20th Century Women (2016). Embodying her invites a poignant vision of emotional detachment. Despite her extensive preparation, including practicing a Scandinavian accent and colouring her hair to resemble Nora, her inability to grasp Gustav’s vision shows art must be authentic.
This film’s lasting power is not just through dramatising family conflict. It is also about creating authentic art using truthful human experiences. The lead role forces Nora to resolve her anger with her father. Similarly, Rachel’s inability to immerse herself in the role is because she exists outside the family’s conflict and its difficult history during the Second World War. Joachim Trier’s film is therefore a battle cry against ‘AI slop’ and streaming services ending the theatrical experience. He authenticates both cinema and trauma through a complex family story, four great performances, and deft visual choices.
Summary: The film’s lasting power is not just through dramatising family conflict. It is also about creating authentic art using truthful human experiences.
4
Impressive
About the Author
Damien Straker is a freelance writer and film critic. He studied at the University of Sydney and graduated with an Arts Honours degree in Film Studies. He is a pop culture aficionado and enjoys talking about all films, 90s TV shows, ninjas and watching Rugby League. His favourite film directors are Alfonso Cuarón, Clint Eastwood and Alexander Payne.
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