Sentimental Value

It had never occurred to me that Trier has been aiming for Bergman all along (this almost felt like a “duh” whack around the head a couple of times) – this is a very powerful and emotionally confronting study of the parent-child dynamics and the old chestnut of the melding of fantasy and reality through the creative process; what makes this interesting is how maddeningly opaque and open-ended Trier is in the motivations of his characters, adding to the hall of mirrors of incident throughout the generations. A rare and terrific leading performance for Skarsgård, who hasn’t had this sort of substance since BREAKING THE WAVES, and uniformly fine work from Reinsve, Lilleaas and Fanning who create an intriguing LEAR dynamic with Skarsgård; Fanning in particular hits all the right notes as a talented actress who is not quite in key with the character she is playing.