133 min | R | November 7, 2025 | Neon
Tender family drama with strong performances that never finds the gear it keeps reaching for. Cannes loved it. I liked it fine.
Renate Reinsve is good here. She was good in The Worst Person in the World and she’s good as Nora, a stage actor grieving her mother while navigating the unwelcome return of her father. She carries scenes with quiet precision. Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as younger sister Agnes is wonderful. The two of them together have a sibling chemistry that feels lived-in and real. Their scenes are the best thing in the movie.
Stellan Skarsgard plays Gustav, the famous film director who abandoned his family when the girls were young and now shows up with a script and a fumbling redemption arc. It’s a role Skarsgard could play in his sleep. He doesn’t phone it in, but the character never surprises you either. You know where Gustav is headed the moment he walks through the door. The script telegraphs every beat of his journey from estranged father to repentant artist seeking absolution through his craft.
That predictability is the problem. The film halts when it tries to be arresting. It reaches for something profound about art and family and inherited pain, but it keeps landing on well-worn paths. You’ve seen this story. The absent creative genius returns. The wounded children resist, then soften. The conclusion arrives reduced and uneasy, which might be the point, but doesn’t feel earned after two hours of setup. Trier is a talented director. This one just never escapes the gravity of its own familiar structure.