Carlos Boyero makes it clear in his criticism that Valor sentimental It is dominated by emotional intensity. He refers to the latest film by Norwegian film director Joachim Trier, a Nordic film, which in his analysis, he considers “indebted to Bergman.”
The expert says that he went to see it with great interest, which was provoked by the director’s previous project in which he served as director, The worst person in the world, as well as its leading actress, Renate Reinsve. A sensation that, he assures, he only had during the first sequences of Valor sentimental because “they ask whether houses and the objects in them also harbor feelings regarding the people who live in them.”
He explains that his charm is short-lived because from then on everything is dominated by emotional intensity. “Nordic, indebted to Bergman, proven and tormented artist, author of some films that I like, but to whom I also owe numerous yawns,” adds Boyero.
The film stars Stellan Skarsgård, who in Boyero’s words plays an elderly, retired film director who intends to tell what will be his last film, a family tragedy in which he wants his eldest daughter to star. Elle Fanning is the other big star of the film and the actress who will finally play the role of the eldest daughter in the fiction prepared by the director.
Reinsve also leads the cast of this film and, however, on this occasion Boyero is not convinced by his “suffering performance.” The filmmaker writes this film with psychological and anguished material that does not provoke hypnosis and that does not infect him with the feeling and complexity that he intends to convey. “It will be my problem,” he concludes.
If you want to read Carlos Boyero’s complete review you can do so by following this link: ‘Sentimental value’: too much Nordic intensity.
Valor sentimental
Address: Joachim Trier.
Interpreters: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas.
Gender: drama. Norway, 2025.
Duration: 133 minutes.
Premiere: December 5.