Sentimental Value           5 stars

From filmmaker Joachim Trier comes one of the best films I have seen about family dynamics and the lasting effects of trauma on generations. Renate Reinsve stars as stage actress Nora who still lives in the family house in Oslo that has been in the family for multiple generations. She has just had the memorial service for her mother, who raised Nora and her sister, Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) when their long absent father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgard of Dune and Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1 & II), a famed filmmaker, who walked out on the family when the girls were young suddenly shows up. The two sisters still resent their father leaving, but Gustav acts like things are still normal between them. On top of that he offers Nora the starring role in his new movie that he has written especially for her. Nora says no way to the offer and soon after Gustav shows up with a famous American actress, Rachel (Elle Fanning of Somewhere and Maleficent) to whom he has offered the role. Things then become personal when the location of the film is to be the family home. In addition, Gustav convinces Rachel to dye her hair the same color as Nora’s plus he wants to cast Agnes’ young son, Erik, as the son of Rachel’s character. It gets even more shocking when it is revealed that the film will feature a suicide in a manner like an actual suicide that happened in the family many years before. In this way the film becomes art imitating life, something that is just too much for Nora to contemplate, given the events in her family. Both Lilleaas and Fanning are both stunning as actors in the movie, but the film really belongs to Reinsve and Skarsgard, who play well off each other and make you realize that neither is the villain here. They are just trying to work through the pain of their circumstances. This is the second time that Joachim Trier and Renate Reinsve have worked together with their previous film being The Worst Person in the World (which I previously reviewed). Don’t be turned off by the subject matter as things work out in the end, but I won’t say how. Sentimental Value, I believe will be seen as one of the best films of the year.