Recensioni degli utenti

:::Watched at Scandinavian Film Festival:::

Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value is a deeply resonant family drama that eschews melodrama for emotional authenticity and psychological nuance. The film is centred on Nora, played with great restraint by Renate Reinsve, who is forced to confront her estranged filmmaker father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), after the death of her mother. The family home in Oslo emerges as both setting and symbol-a container for memories and scars-which Gustav hopes to immortalise through his latest cinematic project.

Trier handles the motif of inherited trauma with tact, refusing to indulge in manipulative sentimentality. Instead, the narrative unfolds gently, through carefully observed interactions and silences. Nora, a stage actress paralysed by anxiety and divided loyalties, is caught between the burdens of family history and the demands of performance. Reinsve imbues her character with a delicate sense of unease that never spills over into theatrics, while Skarsgård navigates Gustav's arrogance and regret with a similarly subtle touch. The supporting cast, specifically Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as Nora's sister Agnes, adds depth to the film's meditation on the countless ways familial love and resentment can coexist.

The script delicately questions the ethics of artistic catharsis, as Gustav asks Nora to recreate painful family events on camera-prompting sharp consideration of the cost of using real trauma for art. Elle Fanning, as an eager Hollywood star parachuted into the family's drama, serves as both mirror and foil to Nora, further sharpening the film's self-examination of performance, legacy, and authenticity.

Visually, Sentimental Value is quietly gorgeous, its crystalline light and carefully composed frames echoing the story's sense of longing and the weight of the past. Trier's refined direction and restrained musical choices allow every emotional beat to register fully.

What endures is the film's generosity and honesty. It does not force reconciliation but gently suggests that understanding alone could be redemptive. Sentimental Value is demanding, reflective, and full of love for flawed people, confirming Trier as one of the most perceptive filmmakers working today.

This is the first time i rate a movie on imdb. I watched it on cinema a couple of days ago and it is by far the best movie I have ever seen in my life. It's still stuck in my body, even from seeing it two days ago. Really, a masterpiece... Renate is perfect for the role, also the other actors makes it whole. I love how you can almost touch and feel the mood in the movie. Joachim Trier has done it again. This is Oscar worthy, and I hope everyone is watching this at least one time in their life.

Sentimental Value is a multi-layered masterpiece of a film that skillfully shows several generations of a family affected by both historical and personal traumas. The film focuses on two of the generations: father and two daughters living their life in modern Norway and dealing with the emotional baggage from their past in very different ways. The film honestly opens the door for us into this family house so that we see things the way they are, no character is judged or mocked here. Yet, the storytelling itself has its own twists, therefore we can get the pieces together towards the end, which makes this film even more wholesome and delicate. Amazing script, wonderful acting, great choice of music. Bravo!

The movie is blessed with a strong scenario that would have excelented as a novella. The director/co-writer leaves just enough room to keep the audience wandering.

This film is certainly not a tearjerker. The real emotions are often hidden behind smiles. The acting is strong but subtile.

Leaving the theater I didn't have the feeling of having just watched a great movie. But when I realised a week later it still was in my head I couldn't conclude otherwise.

Poignant, beautifully acted, and visually stunning, the movie captures the complexity of human connection with rare honesty. Every scene feels lived-in, every line of dialogue rings true, and the way it unfolds keeps you emotionally invested all the way through. Definitely the best movie I've watched this year!

Sentimental Values has been praised left and right as a masterpiece, but for me it lands more in the category of "good, but not great." It's beautifully made, with a strong pace, a well-crafted script and strong acting, giving the story authenticity and emotional weight from beginning to end.

One thing I really appreciated is that the film never feels over-explanatory. It trusts the audience to think, to connect what was said earlier with what's happening later, and to piece things together on their own. That kind of narrative confidence is rare, and it makes the film feel smart without being showy.

The film is also filled with references. Some subtle, some more obvious, that adds an extra layer for those who like to dissect details. It rewards attentive viewers, though at times it felt like the references were more about signaling cleverness than adding actual value to the story.

And yet, when it was over, I wasn't left with much. Despite having a personal connection to the father-child themes it explores, it didn't resonate with me in the way I expected. The structure is clever, the craft is solid, the references are plentiful, but the emotional impact fell short for me.

In the end, Sentimental Values is a finely built film with a lot of strengths, and it's certainly worth watching. But calling it a masterpiece feels like overselling it, at least from where I'm sitting.

I felt this needed a review so i made an user. First timer here. Usually dont go to cinema. Watched «verdens verste menneske». Loved it. Sentimental value is more personal. I think its impossible not to Get affected in some way Even though you had a great upbringing( i had). Kinda slow in the beginning but builds up. Centers around the father to daughter relationship. I didnt go into this watching reviews. . The director said before the movie «i hope you feel something». This is a hit or miss movie. This is a hit It delivers in the end. We live in such a shallow world. This offers depth. I Even cried.

Very good film. Loved the storytelling.

BUT HELP: what is the song in the beginning, when Nora eventually manages to perform the play on stage? A kind of classic jazz-opera song? Some woman with a choir singing load. Neeeed the song!

Reflects the sisterhood and parentship, which was nicely to watch!

Sentimental Value reflects Joachim Trier's Norwegian cultural environment while exploring the psychology of generational trauma. With nuance and compassion, the film shows how parents' choices reverberate through their children's lives, shaping identity and memory. Trier suggests that reconciliation across generations, though fragile, is possible. I found this movie both profound and tender. It triggered long conversations with my wife about our own lives and efforts to raise our children in a supportive and loving environment through both happy and challenging times.

Sentimental Value is about a father and his two adult daughters, each reflecting on their past family lives. The father is a film director, absorbed with a new idea for a film, one which seems to be a dramatic representation of a crucial incident in his earlier life. One daughter has acted in the past, the other is currently an actor, performing in a Chekhov play. The father introduces his daughters to a young American actor, played by Elle Fanning, whom he intends to have as the key actor in his new film, representing, it seems, one of his daughters. She may or may not be the father's latest partner. The daughters want to keep their distance both from their father and any involvement in their father's film. Cinematography and acting are of a high standard. But in the end the script doesn't hang together sufficiently well to give a coherent picture of Joachim Trier's intended theme. It looks good, it's interesting, but where's its centre?

Watched at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

Ouch. This movie really hit me close to home.

Joachim Trier once again has crafted a masterful character study tale about family, healing, and the dramatic elements between the dynamics of conflict and characters. Trier's direction on the writing, the setting, the characters and the atmosphere feels genuinely raw realistic and portraited with every dose of naturalist, faithfulness, and emotional weight. He understands how people are act, their personalities and how human connections work, which allows the movie to bring out the light and realistic nature successfully.

With the great color presentation, camerawork, atmosphere and direction, the narrative is really strong. The writing offers great character moments, emotional connections, and well-crafted dialogue between the characters. There are some dialogue pieces that, as of writing this, are still grained and burned into my memory. Alongside with the wonderful performances from the cast members.

I really love the usages of how sound plays in, the themes that are explored, and the established setting and environment that Trier captures. Each felt purposeful without being over the top, and the emotional barrier weight remains reflective and powerful.

Having gotten lots of buzz from Cannes, I can safetly say this is one of the best movies of 2025.

Another masterful, intelligent and multi layered, nuanced film from Joachim Trier. Tremendous performances all round, great script, excellent cinematography and pacing , it's a movie that will also reveal a lot more of itself with repeat views. For those asking about the dong at the beginning, it is Dancing Girl by the late, great Terry Callier, so wonderful to hear one of his many fantastic songs used in a movie, certainly for the first time as far as I'm aware.

LFF#6 What a stunning cinematic masterpiece.

Joachim Trier is more than a director, he's a photographer of the soul. He effortlessly captures doubt, regret, and frustration on a moving face. This is a complex family drama that questions where we place sentimental value: in a home, friends, siblings, our past, or our present? How can art pave the way for forgiveness?

By creating a paradoxical and intimate world where the cast perfectly mirrors the character's backgrounds, Trier immerses us in a Freudian exploration of acting-both on a stage and in life.

The New Order song "World" appears briefly in a needle drop. We hear only a few notes in the film however the chorus resonates: "That's the price of love, can you feel it?"

Joachim Trier has made an absolute timeless classic.

Sentimental Value is a beautiful film on all possible levels; a heartbreaking picture with hilarious moments and haunting realizations; a technically formidable project that knows just how to toy with viewer expectations through the fundamental illusions of cinema. We'd be foolish to expect anything less from Joachim Trier at this point.

His spectacular The Worst Person in the World was wickedly hilarious, unafraid of doing nifty things with its style and presentation (in contrast to too many other rom-coms), and also astute in how it explores the ugly sides of romance in this day and age. Now, we have Sentimental Value, which I was told would be even funnier, even sadder, and possibly treat us to an even better Renate Reinsve performance.

I would agree that it's up there on all counts. And while I am unconvinced it needs to be quite as long as it is, this is a movie that gets better the more I think about it. We follow Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as two Norwegian sisters, Nora and Agnes -- the former a career-focused actress, the latter a family woman -- who are processing the recent passing of their mother and are unsure of what to do with the house that has been in their family -- and "observed" their lives, as an opening narration puts it -- for generations.

Stellan Skarsgård -- in the first native-tongue performance I've seen from him in ages -- plays the estranged father of the two sisters, a once-celebrated Swedish auteur filmmaker named Gustav Borg. As he re-enters their lives, he has a new script with him, hoping that Nora, an actress who mainly does stage plays and TV, would play the main part. The tension during the family scenes is palpable, even as we're made to begrudingly laugh at Gustav's deliberate jokes and/or oblivious comments.

Nora refuses to work with him, leading to him casting an up-and-coming American actress, Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning). As she becomes a part of the Borg's family's life/history, it becomes obvious just how deeply personal Gustav's screenplay actually is, and also what art can do for us when all other expression fails.

Along the way, we get some all-too-accurate jabs at the film industry in its modern form and, as mentioned, numerous sequences where we've been primed to expect them to go a certain way, only for the editing to take us for a loop. (It's not for naught that we get a scene where Gustav teaches his grandson, another person he hopes to work with, the various trickeries of filmmaking -- e.g., forced perspective and swish pan transitions -- on his smartphone; this here is a movie for those who like to think about film.)

The acting is absolutely perfect, including scenes where the characters are acting in-universe -- something we don't always realize is happening at first. It's a cleverly made picture that indeed ranks among the finest comedies AND dramas of this year. I would also quote the following Letterboxd post, which praises the film's unexpected horror factor: "Daddy issues, eldest-daughter trauma, Netflix stopping a character's passion project from screening theatrically, and a beautiful house undergoing a modern grey renovation; this is covertly the scariest movie of the year."

I definitely urge you to go see Sentimental Value if you still can, and I would also like to take this moment to make a case for Monday movies. Lately, I've found that weekdays are the best possible time to visit the theater -- provided one has the time and energy -- as it basically guarantees you don't have to see the film in the company of those lockdown-brained youngsters who are used to playing with TikTok when a movie gets too boring (not that they would willingly go see a Scandinavian family dramedy, but still).

You can also be sure you'll share the auditorium with those who go out of their way to see movies, and also love them. It was a joy to be able to see this film with the sort of audience that evidently understands why a guy giving his 9-year-old grandchild DVD copies of Irréversible and The Piano Teacher as a birthday present is a hilarious scene.

Joachim Trier's films concern themselves with the quiet crises that shape a life. His work is marked by an unusual balance of intellectual rigor and emotional generosity: formally precise yet deeply humane, ironic without cynicism and always attentive to the small, decisive moments where lives tilt almost imperceptibly. Throughout his career, he has shown a deep attunement to the ways people try to make sense of themselves amid the shifting currents of memory and expectation.

His newest, 'Sentimental Value', sits comfortably within this body of work. Nuanced and touching, it follows film director Gustav Borg's relationship with his estranged daughters Nora and Agnes. After their mother's funeral brings the fractured family back together, old wounds, unspoken resentments and lingering affections resurface.

It is a subtle drama, saying a great deal without ever labouring its point. Trier uses the narrative to engage with a range of themes, not least the messy dynamics of familial life, generational and inherited trauma and the tension between creative ambition and emotional truth. As ever, he is less interested in resolution than in the uneasy processes by which people attempt to understand one another and themselves.

Trier's narrative, written alongside Eskil Vogt, favours conversation over confrontation, finding its drama in half spoken grievances, withheld affection and the uneasy rhythms of family interaction. Beneath these exchanges lies the quieter legacy of the past: the emotional patterns shaped by Gustav's own childhood losses and the subtle ways those patterns have drifted into the lives of his daughters.

Trier is also alert to the tensions between art and intimacy. A film Gustav is trying to make alongside Nora becomes a kind of emotional fault line, a reminder of how creativity can both illuminate and distort personal relationships. For Nora and, to a lesser extent, Agnes, participating in his work offers the possibility of connection, but also the risk of being drawn back into patterns they have spent years trying to escape. Trier treats these dynamics with characteristic delicacy, allowing the contradictions to sit side by side rather than forcing them into neat thematic conclusions.

Kasper Tuxen's cinematography extends this delicacy into the film's visual language. His images are characteristically unshowy, favouring natural light, soft contrasts and a gentle, observational camera that seems to hover at the edges of conversations rather than impose itself on them. Close ups arrive sparingly but with purpose, catching the flicker of doubt or longing that passes across a face before a character can suppress it.

Interiors are framed with a quiet warmth, while outdoor scenes carry a faint, melancholy openness, as if the landscape itself were absorbing the family's unresolved tensions. The family house itself becomes a living canvas; the beating heart of Trier's narrative. Tuxen's work never strains for symbolism; instead, it creates a visual atmosphere in which the film's emotional undercurrents can surface without fanfare (barring one moment, an unnecessary, overt nod to Ingmar Bergman's 'Persona').

Further, Jorgen Stangebye Larsen's production design reflects the film's emotional subtlety, favouring lived in spaces shaped by accumulated habits rather than overt aesthetic choices. Although some scenes seem to drag, Olivier Bugge Coutte's editing generally comes as a boon to proceedings, letting scenes breathe and conversations unfold with natural hesitations, while transitions slip by with the quiet logic of memory. In addition, Hania Rani's score, alongside an eclectic soundtrack, adds a restrained emotional undertow without ever overwhelming the drama.

The performances are uniformly strong, anchored by Stellan Skarsgard's layered and disarmingly vulnerable turn as Gustav. He plays the character not as a tyrant or a martyr, but as a man who has learned to rely on charm and avoidance, carrying old wounds he has never fully examined, with flickers of vulnerability surfacing only when he's too tired to suppress them. Renate Reinsve delivers an acting masterclass, bringing a taut, restless energy to Nora, capturing both her longing for connection and her instinctive recoil from the emotional traps she recognises all too well.

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, meanwhile, offers a more understated but no less affecting performance as Agnes, whose calm exterior is less a sign of certainty than a way of keeping her own doubts at bay. Together, they create a believable dynamic, each performance attuned to the film's delicate balance of affection, frustration and tragic history. In addition, Elle Fanning and Anders Danielsen Lie, in smaller roles, round out the ensemble with a quiet assurance, adding texture without ever drawing focus from the central trio.

Joachim Trier's 'Sentimental Value' is a beautifully observed drama that reaffirms his place as one of contemporary cinema's most sensitive chroniclers of human connection. Strongly acted and beautifully shot, the film is hard to fault. Attentive to the small, often uncomfortable moments through which people attempt to reconcile with the baggage they carry, it is measured, humane and quietly affecting; never sentimental, yet rich in value.

At first, I thought the disappointment was on me for expecting too much. I'd really liked Joachim Trier's Oslo trilogy, especially The Worst Person in the World, so I was down for a new film from him, especially with this cast. I guess it being called Sentimental Value, I was also expecting an emotional walloping I never really got. That sense of not feeling the movie might be partly on me for expecting something else, but I think it's also partly on the movie for not being more than, at best, pretty good.

2025 has been a bit of a rough year for disappointing follow-ups, or I guess a good year for them, technically. Mickey 17, the latest Mission: Impossible, Materialists... and now Sentimental Value, which is a bit better than any of those at least, but still, it's been a shaky year for some great (or at least promising) filmmakers.

Sentimental Value could've concluded really well had it ended about a minute sooner, so that was also a shame. I felt some potential power dissipate. Otherwise, in terms of everything before the ending, it's a rehash of certain things you've probably seen done better or more authentically in other movies. And it needed a better reason to have all the meta stuff throughout. It's underbaked here, or feels like diet arthouse. It's not particularly clever or original, and that would've been okay if the film had been a little more moving, but I still wasn't feeling it. Maybe having filmmakers and actors be characters made me want to second-guess so many scenes.

Is it real? Is it a performance? Is it both? Is it neither? None of these questions are particularly good to have rattling around your head on a scene-by-scene basis if you want to be moved.

If Trier wanted to shift into Lars Von Trier, Michael Haneke, or Charlie Kaufman territory with this, and if he wanted to make something more cerebral than emotive, I think he missed the mark. Maybe not entirely, because parts of the movie are still interesting, the acting's generally strong, and I can't deny there was anticipation when it came to waiting for the movie to play all its cards. But the rush or realisation never came. I left feeling a bit cold, and I also walked away feeling underwhelmed intellectually, because there's not much substance to what this film's trying to get at; not enough to fully warrant that runtime.

I'm souring more on this film as more minutes pass by, sadly, even if I'd still say it's technically decent, owing to the stuff that works. But still, it's pretty underwhelming considering the talent involved.

I genuinely wanted to like this film. It had so much going for it in the first hour and the stellar acting from the cast, up to the arthouse way the story was being told. Then something happens halfway through the movie and I completely lost interest. Instead of being an inspiring story of character's coping with their differences and trauma, we got a parade of pretentious actions and selfish viewpoints. But the worst thing about it all was the pacing. The last half of this film is slower than molasses. I mean I was begging for it to end, and it seemed to go on forever.

Overall, I couldn't recommend it. I have no clue how this film is holding a solid 8 on here but it's closer to a 6 or a 5, maybe a 7 if you actually enjoyed it. Really sucks because everything was great except for the writing, and the pacing was almost torture through for half of the film and it never picks back up again, even in the end. Definitely an in-the-comfort-of-your-own-home type of watch. Definitely did not need to watch this in theaters.

2.5 pretentious daughters out of 5.

"Sentimental Value" is a tightly scripted and extremely well acted movie about navigating the work/life balance of being an artist. The absentee father (played by Stellan Skarsgaard) can only relate to his daughters by casting them in his movies, when he reveals that he has been paying more attention and knows them better than they think he does. Renata Reinsve plays his high-strung actress daughter who harbors deep seated resentment of him. And Elle Fanning plays the actress he hires to be his daughter in his new movie when his actual daughter declines to work with him.

This movie feels very personal and very niche. Which is maybe why I didn't have more of an emotional response to it. Writer/director Joachim Trier ably makes us understand the dynamic that exists in this world of artists, but it didn't resonate with me personally. If I was slightly disappointed in the film, it's because I was coming in with high expectations given the rapturous praise it's received and because I was looking forward to having more of an emotional connection with it.

Grade: A-

I watched this movie at the theaters on 12/04/2025, right before this review. In the end, I give this one a slightly above-average score - 5.5/10 . The main problem, I guess, is that I probably just didn't get it. And I'm not ashamed to say so

I'll start with the positives ... There are some touching sister-sister moments. Some scenes are poetical, even if the words are in a different language (with English subtitles). For example, the movie has a powerful opening scene about how Nora as a child wrote an assignment where she personified the house where she grew up

The movie has a decent score, and some nice cinematography. Stellan Skarsgard is alright too. He reminded me of Joe Biden in appearance, though his performance overall gave me some faint vibes of Burt Lancaster in Atlantic City. I won't pretend that I fully understood it, but Stellan's performance seemed complex and multilayered. I wasn't sure whether his character is supposed to be good or bad

But as I said - I just can't go above a 5.5/10. The big issue, again, is that I just didn't get it. What's the message of the movie? ... I could grasp that the movie wants to say something about family and forgiveness, but I just wish the movie weren't so cagey about it

The movie is slow and plodding, making the 2-hour runtime feel a lot more like 3 hours. It was a grind for me to get through this movie. There is some repetitiveness. The movie kinda felt like an endless cycle of: 2 characters talk, the conversation approaches a sad topic, they stare at one another with sad facial expressions, and then we go to the next scene where the same thing happens.

I'm not sure what to make of Elle Fanning's character. In the end, I was wondering why so much screen time went to her when her character doesn't lead to much payoff . In retrospect, a lot of her scenes could have been condensed

The movie isn't bad, but I guess I didn't understand it. And it's a movie that I likely won't watch again

5.5/10.

Why do genius film artists like Norway's Jochim Trier make movies like "Sentimental Value"?

Why fill a movie screen with the pain some fathers and daughters have expressing their love?

That question crossed my mind as I watched the fragile drama unfold. But by the time it reached its precarious victory in the last scene, I had my answer.

Winner of this year's Grand Prize at Cannes, nominated for numerous Golden Globes, expect to see "Sentimental Value" up for a lot of Oscars, too, including Best Picture in English and Foreign Language.

Stellan Skarsgard delivers a masterful if maddening performance as Gustav Borg, who divorces his wife when his daughters are still young girls, but returns to the beloved family home for his ex-wife's funeral.

His reappearance rekindles unresolved resentments for the now grown Nora (Renata Reinsve) and her younger sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). Then he adds some bombshell complications.

Gustav is a renowned filmmaker, now at the phase of his career where festivals honor him for his lifetime's work. Although he featured his younger daughter in one of his early masterpieces, she wisely made the decision not to go into the film business herself. Now she's a mother, a wife, and a relatively sane person.

It was older sister Nora who got the acting bug, and turned it into a somewhat successful career. She performs classic roles onstage, and her TV series did well. But all her talent comes at a price. High-strung is an understatement. Just getting her out of her dressing room and onto the stage before the curtain rises is a recurring ordeal her cast and crew mates have gotten used to.

Gustav hasn't made a movie in more than a decade, but he arrives back in his daughters' lives with a screenplay he's finally finished. It was inspired by memories of his mother, and he wants Nora to play the role.

She declines.

Just read it, he pleads.

No way, she says. (However you say that in Norwegian.) Complication No. 2: Daddy still owns the family home the daughters are so attached to. He neglected to sign it over to his wife when they divorced.

It's the setting he always had in mind writing his script. It's more than a setting, actually - it's a character, if not the star of his movie.

Not to share many more details, but Gustav Borg is an opinionated, strong-willed sort of fella - you know how those artistic types are. And so, after Nora's refusal, he finds another actress to play the role. She's Rachel Kemp, she's played by Elle Fanning, and she's as huge a screen star as, well, Elle Fanning.

That's the set-up. The interaction of the characters as they encounter, clash, love, hate and merge into each other weaves the fabric of the story.

It's probably sheer coincidence that "Sentimental Value" and George Clooney's "Jay Kelly" were released in the same awards season. Both tell the same story - the missing-in-action father who escaped into his brilliant filmmaking career rather than fulfilling the one role his daughters needed him to play.

Clooney's film is the glossy Hollywood version. "Sentimental Value" is the one that says all the things "Jay Kelly" can't. It's the honest, uncomfortable, beautiful, messy, real version.

Also like "Jay Kelly," it's a movie about making movies. Its insider sensibility is shaped by Gustav Borg's unassailable belief in his personal artistic vision. He's fond of "Oners" - scenes that go on for minutes, encompassing huge sweeps of action in a single take. He's sure his daughter is right for his script, but won't pay her the courtesy of watching her TV series or showing up to see her onstage.

You can imagine the effect of all this on temperamental Nora. Especially after he leaves her behind and tries to charm his way into the role of director/daddy for Rachel Kemp.

With the arduous vulnerability of acting such a major theme in "Sentimental Value," it's amazing to note how natural all the performances are. Elle Fanning's efforts to master her role is a movie within a movie within a movie. The actresses playing the sisters not only look alike, but share traits and mannerisms. Their bond is one of the film's joys.

And Skarsgard earns all the awards buzz coming his way for his prickly portrayal of a master artist.

As it turns out, movies are where Gustav Borg lives. His emotions, at least. Like Jay Kelly, the movies he makes are the one place he can find and reveal the love so elusive in his actual life.

Writer-director Trier shares Gustav Borg's tastes and exacting standards. The pregnant pauses in the dialogue and fades to black between scenes set the film's rhythm. The cinematography is gorgeous.

"Sentimental Value" is the opposite of "entertainment." It's the sort of movie we look into like mirrors to see ourselves.

From the very beginning, the writing makes a concerted effort to delve deep into the characters' psyches. It seeks to explore the pain and lingering recollections of a past long buried, memories that continue to haunt the group of protagonists and hinder their ability to function effectively at both their personal and professional podiums.

While there was a clear intention to navigate the complex waves of guilt and grief, the execution fell short of providing the emotional allure here. The writing began with a subtlety that persisted throughout the entire piece, it never dares to breach its walls of safety, so to speak, leaving the moments of ultimate realisation and closure feeling rather muted, at least for me.

Now I do appreciate the flow of the narration, and the characters certainly spark interest with their commendable actions. However, I found it difficult to form a genuine attachment to their struggles. I couldn't immerse myself enough to truly root for them or their journey toward reconciliation.