Cinema is Healing in "Sentimental Value"

As someone who was diagnosed on the autism spectrum, I have constantly written about how I not only watch movies because they are entertaining, but because I use them to understand life better. Movies have the power to put us in the shoes of people whom we normally wouldn’t have a lot in common, and we see how they see life. If people can learn to understand life better by watching them, then it should also be understood that those who make the movies are also putting themselves in some of their works. So the story of “Sentimental Value” goes, as an aging film director sets out to make one more movie before his career comes to an end.

He puts a script in front of his estranged daughter and asks her to play the lead role. The daughter is an accomplished actress in her own right, bringing classics to life on stage most nights. But she was never in the movies much, and she was always resentful that her father was never around. Here he was, though, shortly after her mother's death, with a screenplay he says he’s written for her, and he can see no one else playing the part. Resentful that he appears more concerned about his career than their relationship, she storms out of the restaurant in anger.

He is determined to make the movie, though. He attracts an American actress (played by Elle Fanning) to play the role instead. Financing comes in via Netflix (though one of his producers has to temper the director's expectations when it comes to a theatrical release), and he pushes forward with the project (even deciding to make the film in English to cater to the American actress). While the film may be coming together, it is turning into something he is slowly not recognizing. When he isn’t working on the film, he is trying to reconnect with his daughters.

One wants little to do with him and goes out of her way to avoid him when possible. The other, while resentful of his absence, is looking at her son and feeling that reconciliation would be best going forward. “Sentimental Value” sets up that there is family conflict early on and then spends two hours showing the various ways these people deal with their trauma. One of the daughters has anxiety attacks and lives alone. She is having an affair with a married man, but knows that this can not go anywhere substantial. The other daughter managed to get through her troubled childhood largely intact, but still feels the weight of responsibility in trying to keep the family together.

At one point, we find out that the grandmother committed suicide, and that appears to have altered the course of the family's lives for multiple generations. Then we have the director, who has written what he believes to be his best script. His intent to include family members in the movie seems unconventional until you realise that the project is more personal than he is letting on. As more information comes out, we understand the movie can truly be a healing process for the entire family if they can figure out how to understand each other enough to trust one another.

“Sentimental Value” is the kind of adult movie that exists for adults who take their art seriously. It doesn’t talk down to the audience, nor does it treat them as sheep that need to be spoon-fed the story. Most of the story is told through silence and long shots. The camera ever so slightly shakes, and we get a feeling that anger is boiling for the characters we are looking at. While the ending could possibly be considered a stretch, it is a satisfying conclusion where everyone goes through their own personal hell in hopes of finding love with each other again.