Cannes #78 - “Sentimental Value” Review

Some places are more than just coordinates on a map. They’re emotional vaults; sanctuaries of memories. For me, the Grand Théâtre Lumière in Cannes is hallowed ground. It’s where, one late, wine-blushed night in 2021, I first stumbled upon The Worst Person in the World. That film didn’t just move me: it moved in, becoming a compass for navigating love, loss, and everything messy in between. A north star for modern love stories. Fast-forward four years, and I find myself in the same screen, sitting on the same velvet seats, heart open and hopeful, as Joachim Trier steps back on the red carpet with Sentimental Value.

And what a return it is.

You don’t change a winning team, and Trier knows it. Reuniting with his new magnetic muse and miracle-worker Renate Reinsve, Trier once again deals with the difficulties of love in full Scandinavian fashion, this time turning his lens away from romantic disarray and toward the bruised chaos of family. If Worst Person was about the confusion of young love, Sentimental Value is a tender autopsy of inherited wounds, fractured communication, and the ghosts that linger in the wallpaper of childhood homes.

Reinsve stuns (again) as Nora, a successful stage actress forced to reckon with her estranged father, Gustav Borg, after the death of her mother. Played by Stellan Skarsgård, who delivers a career-best performance, Gustav is a once-great film director who’s been silent for fifteen years, attempting a late-life comeback. Now he’s suddenly back in her daughter’s life with a script, specifically written for Nora, and wants to shoot it in their old family home that still echoes with many things unsaid. A flattering and yet unwelcome offer that feels more like an insult to Nora. Is it just a film, or Gustav’s cry for connection? But if cinema is indeed a form of communication, it can become an artist’s best reconciliation language, and even a vehicle for healing.

Underneath it all is Trier’s signature preoccupation:  he knows exactly where the emotional core lies and how to drill straight into it, with honesty and humour. His storytelling is sharp as ever, each dialogue brimming with subtext, every glance carrying weight, and every frame humming with restrained emotion without verging into the expositional melodrama. Nothing is obvious, while everything matters. It’s the rare cinema that trusts its audience, being quietly confident, sincere, and achingly human.

Reinsve, once again, is astonishing, and her ability to show strength and fragility in the same breath is unmatched. She deservedly won Best Actress for Worst Person, but this time, I believe it’s Trier’s turn. Sentimental Value is not his best film, but his most mature to date. And after a fifteen minute standing ovation, it’s time to give the man his Palme.

4/5