Sentimental Value

At the center of Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value stands a house that has been in the Borg family for generations. As a child, Nora wrote about her home for a class essay, asking whether the house prefers to be empty or filled with her family. Do the cracks in its foundation cause the house pain, or are they like wrinkles on an aging face? Many generations of her family have been born and died there, often in the same rooms. The house brings to mind Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House, a 2019 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which portrays a house as more than just a living space. It’s a metaphor for those who live inside, in the same way Trier’s film, and all great art, expresses emotion, evokes memories, witnesses trauma, and alludes to history beyond its form. With his latest, Trier—the Danish-Norwegian filmmaker whose previous film, The Worst Person in the World (2021), made a star of Renate Reinsve—crafts a film that encapsulates his brand of cinema and feels both organic and literary. He makes films so richly layered, terrifically acted, and thoughtfully shot that they prompt a frisson of viewing pleasure, along with long periods of post-viewing contemplation. This one is no exception.

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