I am a man of the people. By that I mean, I like lots of different kinds of movies. Do I have a movie snoot membership card? Sure. But I also have a nerd card, a kung-fu card, heck, even a hallmark card. If you would rather skip the family jibber jabber and go straight to making an offering on the altar of the god of explosions? You won’t be getting any burn notices from me. I get it. The god of explosions definitely did *not* confer their blessing on to “Sentimental Value”.
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That being said, it’s fucking awesome.
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The best scene in the movie happens in the second act. A film director, played by Stellar Skateboard (aka Stellan Skarsgaard #HDTGM) is rehearsing a scene with his lead actress, Elle “Last but not least of the Fannings” Fanning. She is playing a part that he insists “Is not his mother”. Over the course the scene, her character, who is not religious, prays for the first time, prays that she can find her way out of her sorrow and back to a place resembling ‘home’. Elle is pretty good at reading this scene. Her voice starts to quiver, and eventually she breaks down into full on tears. Fairly impressive. We, the audience, however, realize that we were told the truth: The scene isn’t about Stellar Skateboard’s mother, it’s about *him*. Every single nuance, every single emotional beat that Elle Fanning is conveying to us, *he* is doing it as well, because it’s *his* scene, they are *his* emotions. Except... He has to convey them without speaking a word of dialogue or shedding a single tear or using any affectation that an actor can use as a crutch. He has to do it through sheer *presence*. AND HE DOES. To be honest... It’s one of the most impressive feats of acting... Ever. Like, seriously, EVER. Like “students need to study this scene in film school” ever. Well... Study in film school until they end up flipping burgers because AI has replaced actors. Then the automatic burger flippers will come online and they won’t be doing that either, they will become an entire generation of zombies acting like humans acting like zombies.
We’re getting off course. The point is, this amazing scene with Stellar Skateboard, that’s what the movie is about. Disconnection. A favorite song of mine is “The Grand Illusion” by Styx, which has the classic line “Deep inside we’re all the same”. It’s true! But *nobody* in “Sentimental Value” knows it. Everybody thinks that their shyte... Is unique to them. To an extent, every individual’s shyte *is* unique to them, but, to a different, and still very real, extent, IT ISN’T. Your experiences ARE going to mirror other people’s experiences, people that you know and love, and vice versa. You just have to see it. “Sentimental Value” has scene after scene of characters feeling the same emotions, going through the same distress, and not realizing it *at all*, and NOT using those shared emotions to help each other. It’s a pretty difficult watch because of that alienation that shrouds the whole movie... But at the same time, it’s a masterclass in acting without overacting, and expressing similar emotions WITHOUT using similar methods. I don’t want to speak for the god of explosions, but I am guessing even they are pretty impressed at the sheer number of the self-contained emotional explosions offered by “Sentimental Value”. For card carrying movie snoots, this is where it’s at.
I watched this movie with my friend “Professor Kov”. It’s pretty universally known that Renate Reinsve, who plays Stellar Skateboard’s daughter, is “The Norwegian Dakota Johnson”. I don’t put images on this site because I don’t have time for that nonsense, I’m keeping it real, but if you put Dakota and Renate side by side you’ll see it. Our argument was whether Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, who plays her sister, is the “Norwegian Melanie Lynskey” or the “Norwegian Marcia Gay Harden”. It is *obvious* that Inga is the Norwegian Melanie Lynskey... Not just in appearance, but in her deliberate, low key acting style as well. It is equally obvious that if Marcia Gay Harden got married to James Harden, she would then be Marcia Exgay Harden Harden. Everybody loves ‘the beard’, so we need to make this happen, folks.
5/10