Sentimental Value (2025) review

Stage actress Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve) receives a surprise visit from her filmmaker father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård) who wants to make a feature in her childhood home (based on the troubled life of his mother/her grandmother) and cast her as his lead - when she refuses to look at the screenplay, he offers the role to American movie star Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning).  Once it gets past establishing the whole 'Daddy-Daughter' conflict in the first act, the film becomes frustratingly stagnant: Gustav works with a fickle (and pesky) Rachel on developing her character, Nora has an affair with married coworker Jakob (Dr. Anders Danielsen Lie) that fizzles out and Nora's sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) does research into their grandmother's involvement with the Norwegian resistance.  The title is there as a notification to the viewer that it's trying to be 'nostalgic' - Trier and co-screenwriter Eskil Vogt even shoehorn in some (inherently sad) World War II history (and details regarding torture) - except it's so formal and humorless that the telegraphed 'happy' ending can be met with a slight shrug.