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Sentimental Value (2025)

Sentimental Value 2025 movie poster for Joachim Trier's Norwegian drama Affeksjonsverdi, featuring a privileged family navigating an absent father's return through the making of a film.

Plot Summary: A film director wants to make a movie. His family has feelings about it. Two hours and thirteen minutes pass. Acclaimed by everyone except me.

Norwegian Title: Affeksjonsverdi
Director: Joachim Trier
Writers: Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier
Producers: Maria Ekerhovd, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar
Cinematography: Kasper Tuxen
Editing: Olivier Bugge CouttΓ©
Music: Hania Rani

Starring:
Renate Reinsve as Nora Borg
Stellan SkarsgΓ₯rd as Gustav Borg
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as Agnes Borg Pettersen
Elle Fanning as Rachel Kemp
Anders Danielsen Lie as Jakob
Jesper Christensen as Michael
 A header image for a movie review from "Freddy's Movie Review." On the left is a blue-tinted photo of the blog's author, Freddy, smiling while wearing sunglasses and giving a thumbs-up. The text "freddy's movie review" is on the right.
⚠️ SPOILER ALERT ⚠️

A Universally Acclaimed Snoozefest


Today I bring you the movie... let me check my notes again. Ah, right: Sentimental Value. What a boooooring movie. That's it, thank you for reading. But seriously, let's give all the critical reverence and awards we can to this completely irrelevant, flat, uninteresting piece of meditative cinema, or whatever this flick about a director wanting to make a movie is supposed to be.

I just read that it has 9 Oscar nominations, 64 wins, and 298 total nominations! Ahahah, f**king hell, the world is surely operating in completely different dimensions. This universally acclaimed piece of meditative posh is genuinely infuriating.

Watch the supposedly comedic scene about the IKEA stool below. Ahaha, so funny. (Sarcasm)

First-World Problems and Weed-Induced Redemption


I actually had to watch this in two parts because of how bored I was. For the second part, I was high on weed, and honestly, that might explain the feelings I had during the film's most "punchy" moment. The oldest daughter finally reads the script, and through that, she learns that her father was actually kind of present in her life. Ooooh, so sweet. The absent father finds redemption, woohoo. That is genuinely the best scene, but there's absolutely nothing else to this movie.

The ending is also totally predictable, my wife had already guessed it before we even sat down to watch the second half. I was aiming for the father to have an affair with the young actress, where he would politely rebuff her advances, or that he would simply die (I'm basic like that). But my wife got it right the first time, knowing full well that in the final scene he was just shooting the movie with his daughter. Well done to her, I suppose.

This wasn't made for my enjoyment. It's completely detached from my 2025 reality. It's just a privileged white family problem that takes forever to be solved, calmly and gently infuriating me to the point where I'm screaming, "I don't give a f**k about these people and their first-world problems!" Damn, I get angry just thinking about it.

Watch the climax scene of the movie right below.

"PΓ£ozinho Sem Sal" and My New Boycott


The only good thing I can say about this movie is that it's not American. Which brings me to a quick update: I'm officially informing you that American movies will now be a rarity on this blog because I am boycotting everything made in the USA or Israel. So, we're stuck with European offerings like this. This movie is what we Portuguese call a "pΓ£ozinho sem sal" — a little bread without salt. It's just completely uninteresting and smug.

Please, I am begging you, tell me in the comments what is so interesting about this movie to you? Why is it considered good? Explain to this peasant what is so great about this 2 hour and 13-minute torture session. Thanks.

Freddy's Final Rating

21

298 nominations, 64 wins, and approximately zero reasons for this peasant to care


πŸ“¦ Watch or Own Sentimental Value

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πŸ’Ώ Sentimental Value — Blu-ray
For when you want the best possible picture quality on a film you'll probably argue about for hours.
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πŸ“€ Sentimental Value — DVD
The standard disc option if you want a physical copy on your shelf.
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🎬 Sentimental Value — Streaming
Prefer to stream? No disc, no fuss.
Stream on Amazon

🎬 You Might Also Enjoy:

All We Imagine as Light (2024)
Another internationally acclaimed slow-burn drama, but this one from India...

On Falling (2024)
More European quiet drama, but grounded in the kind of working-class reality that Sentimental Value has no clue about.

The Worst Person in the World (2021)
Also by Joachim Trier and proof that he can actually make something engaging.

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