'The type of crowdpleaser that will probably make you laugh and cry, before staying with you for days after viewing.'

The latest from Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier (The Worst Person in the World), the comedy-drama revolves around the Borg family, a clan of creatives.

The patriarch is Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), a renowned movie director and charismatic charmer. His dedication to his craft and egocentric streak have left him estranged from his two daughters.

These are Nora (Renate Reinsve), a stage actress suffering from crippling bouts of stage fright, and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), a historian who as a child starred in one of her dad's films.

Out of the blue, Gustav reappears in Nora's life, asking her to star in his upcoming project, a dark drama that is inspired by his own mother's life and death. He plans to shoot the drama in his childhood home. The house had been occupied by Gustav's ex-wife and Agnes and Nora's mother before her recent death.

After Nora refuses the role, angrily telling Gustav in the process that his project will never come into fruition, she is shocked to learn that her father is actually making the movie for Netflix. Even worse, famous Hollywood actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) is set to play the part she turned down.

As the preparation to shoot Gustav's picture commences, the family are forced to confront old traumas.

Trier's breakthrough movie The Worst Person in the World saw the director utilise his trademark style - a blend of stylish montages, novelistic narration and shifting character perspectives - to capture that intoxicating feeling of being young and in love. Sentimental Value deploys a similar approach to create an effervescent, bittersweet portrait of multiple generations of family, as well as the artistic process, capturing both in all their highs and lows.

The result is an ambitious film that feels slightly messier than Trier's best work, such as Worst Person or Oslo, August 31. In a way, this is inevitable, as the more characters and story beats you add, the more likely some elements are to get short shrift. For instance, Nora's romance with a married theatre colleague (played by Trier regular Anders Danielsen Lie) feels underdeveloped. Plus, some of the showbiz satire feels broad. We were confused as to why Netflix is shown organising press junkets for Gustav's picture before it had even been shot.

Yet, Sentimental Value's high points really are transcendent. The way Trier mixes scenes of the central family's drama and scenes showcasing the art that those characters create, inspired by said drama, is truly inventive, coming together to create an ecstatic truth.

All the actors in the Borg family are incredible, making viewers really believe in their shared history and their subsequent emotional breakthroughs. It's extraordinary how much information Trier can clearly convey about the central clan over four generations. This is from Gustav's mother, who lived during the Nazi occupation of Norway, all the way down to his grandson Erik, Agnes' boy, who also may have a part to play in Gustav's picture. 

Renate Reinsve in Sentimental Value

Trier admirably avoids didactic storytelling, allowing audiences to come to their own conclusions as to how something in the Borgs' past may be impacting their present. This also plays into Sentimental Value's ending. While there is a definite sense of change having occurred, exactly how much is left beautifully ambiguous.

Special praise should go to Skarsgård, who was born to play the type of gregarious rapscallion who you can't help but love despite your better judgment. Elle Fanning also adds unexpected depth to her pampered Hollywood star unexpectedly caught up in Gustav's conflict with his daughters.

All in all, Sentimental Value is the type of crowdpleaser that will probably make you laugh and cry, before staying with you for days after viewing.

Sentimental Value is in cinemas now.