Cover Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in ‘Sentimental Value’ (2025)
Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in ‘Sentimental Value’ (2025)
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Tatler reviews Oscar-nominated film ‘Sentimental Value’, directed by Joachim Trier. Discover why this drama starring Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning is a must-watch for film lovers
Joachim Trier has spent his career documenting the beautiful, messy and often melancholic lives of the Oslo intelligentsia. From the aspiring novelists of Reprise to the wandering photographer in Louder Than Bombs, his characters are almost always people who try to make sense of the world through art. In his seventh feature, Sentimental Value, Trier turns the camera inward on the filmmaking process itself, delivering a meta-narrative that is as much about family legacy as it is about the “crimes” we commit in the name of creativity. This exploration of the creative industry follows Nora Borg, a professional actress whose life and career are deeply intertwined with the cinematic shadow of her father.
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The film opens with a masterclass in atmospheric exposition. We meet Nora, played with raw, electric precision by Renate Reinsve, who, as a child, is given an essay assignment to write a story as if she were an object. She chose to be her family’s house: a soulful, venerable villa in Oslo in need of a coat of paint. Through this creative device, Trier transforms the architecture into a living character that observes the “belly” of the home shaking and feels the “noise” of its inhabitants. It is a brilliant way to show the history of the Borg family through the literal cracks in their foundation, which mirror the slow-motion collapse of their domestic stability.
Above Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in ‘Sentimental Value’ (2025)
Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in ‘Sentimental Value’ (2025)
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The narrative heart truly begins beating with the death of Nora’s mother, Sissel, a loss that pulls the estranged Borg clan back into the same orbit. This reunion brings Nora, the defensive and struggling actress, back together with her younger sister, Agnes, played by Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas. While Nora is entrenched in the performing arts, Agnes has established herself as an academic historian—someone who interprets the past through records rather than performance. Their father, Gustav Borg, played by Stellan Skarsgård, is a renowned film director whose heyday is behind him, presented as a force of nature now worn and creased, yet still armed with a sharp, often manipulative, creative instinct.
The scope of the film widens when the story travels to a French beach town for a retrospective of Gustav’s work. There, he encounters Rachel Kemp, played by Elle Fanning, a global superstar with an expressive “silent movie face” who is profoundly moved by Gustav’s masterpiece, Anna. In a poignant intersection of art and life, the film Rachel admires featured a nine-year-old Agnes in the title role, showcasing a time when the family was still united by Gustav’s lens. Rachel’s fascination with the family’s history becomes the catalyst for Gustav to attempt a new project, one that seeks to mine their most intimate memories for the screen.
Above Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning in ‘Sentimental Value’ (2025)
Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning in ‘Sentimental Value’ (2025)
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One of the most fascinating layers of this film is the clash between the filmmaker’s vision and the actor’s humanity. Trier utilises a “film within a film” structure to explore how artists use pieces of their own identities—and those of their loved ones—as professional currency. The visual treatment is stunning, employing “oners”, or long, uncut takes, that generate a suffocating tension in which there is nowhere for the performer to hide. As the production progresses, the boundary between staged performance and lived experience begins to dissolve, challenging the audience to decide whether the resulting art justifies the emotional cost to the family.
Above Renate Reinsve in ‘Sentimental Value’ (2025)
Renate Reinsve in ‘Sentimental Value’ (2025)
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Reinsve proves once again why she is Trier’s muse, masterfully pivoting between the exhausting professional demands of her craft and the internal “noise” of a woman desperately searching for a sense of home. She is surrounded by a formidable ensemble that includes the charismatic Fanning as the global star Rachel, whose presence adds a touch of Hollywood lustre to this intimate Norwegian drama. However, the film finds its emotional anchor in Lilleaas, whose portrayal of Agnes is a powerhouse. Lilleaas provides the grounded frequency the story needs, moving from a restrained academic historian to a woman who finally confronts the manipulation of her childhood. Together with the world-weary Skarsgård as their controlling filmmaker father, the cast creates a symphony of resentment and shared artistic purpose.
Above Stellan Skarsgård in ‘Sentimental Value’ (2025)
Stellan Skarsgård in ‘Sentimental Value’ (2025)
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Above Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in ‘Sentimental Value’ (2025)
Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in ‘Sentimental Value’ (2025)
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Sentimental Value ultimately asks if art is a bridge that connects us or a barrier we build to avoid our own truth. It is a haunting exploration of the objects and memories we keep and those we should have let go of a long time ago, reflecting our deep need to be seen even when the eye watching us is the cold, unblinking lens of a camera.
In the end, Sentimental Value reminds us that the stories we tell about our lives are rarely the truth, but they are often all we have to keep silence at bay.
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