Sentimental Value

London Film Festival Film #18

I'm not sure anybody is exploring human emotions on such a profoundly unique, internal, intimate level as well as Joaquin Trier is. Sentimental Value is yet another addition to his oeuvre of films that is exploring what it's like to be human. What it's like to experience the myriad of emotions that we all go through, what it's like to make mistakes and to fail and to feel regret and to make up for it. He's exploring incredibly fallable people, which at the end of the day is what all humans are.

This movie is profoundly tender and ever so sweet. It’s a far more mature piece of work. The people that he is characterising here feel more fully formed, and it's as much about looking back as it is about living in the present. It's this almost pull between the past and the present that creates beautifully naturalistic tension and gives it room to flourish.

I'd be remissed if I didn't talk about the overbearing similarities between this and Hamnet, two of the biggest films of the festival, and of the year, both of them dealing with a father's inability to express love in the ways that the people in his life need from him and resorting to this love language, this way to express the emotions that are buried inside him.

It's a very unique take, which is hilarious saying that since there have been multiple instances of this explored in the festival, but I really love the resistance that is portrayed here to their father's way of expressing his love and also the complications that the father struggles with in conveying across this piece of art as his way of expressing love. Whether or not that's clear to him and is a conscious thought or not. It's fascinating to be in a position to realise the faults of why the characters are not as close even if this is unclear to the characters in the film.

It differs quite profoundly from Hamnet in its execution of this artistic moment. As it never really feels like it's building towards any sort of emotional climax, it is not really emotionally manipulative throughout the film; it feels very naturalistic. I mean, it probably feels this way because everything happens quite quietly. It is all happening from a distance, but it's quietly powerful and just because you're at a distance, it doesn’t mean that you don’t feel the interpersonal burden that these characters are carrying and the emotional turmoil they're going through.

It's actually this distance that helps get across our characters’ lack of intimacy in their lives and their craving deeper, more meaningful relationships. I don't think anybody else is writing interpersonal relationships as well as Trier. You're treated to four characters in this; the cast is kept so small, but there are so many different, fascinating dynamics between all of them to explore. All of these are held by incredible performances, and surprisingly, this does build to a gorgeously realised finale that really struck a chord. The power of art, the power of a father's love, and the power to truly understand people