Sentimental Value in a Snowstorm

 

Yesterday afternoon we ventured out in the snow with a surprising number of other oldsters to watch the acclaimed Norwegian film, Sentimental Value. A lot of the dialogue is in Norwegian but we are at a stage of life where subtitles are our friends. The acting is powerful in both languages and the story carries us along through the minefield of broken relationships and unrelenting emotional tensions in a particular family. This paragraph from The Guardian sums up the general storyline well:

Stellan Skarsgård plays preening auteur Gustav Borg, whose career is on the slide; many years ago, he left his wife, Sissel, a psychotherapist, and two young daughters, abandoning the family home – the house where Gustav himself was brought up. Now their mother has died and Gustav’s daughter Nora (Reinsve), a famous stage actor starring in a production of A Doll’s House, is suffering anxiety attacks.

This death brings the Dad back into their lives but he doesn't undergo a miraculous change in character. Yet he writes a film script which may be his last and we slowly come to realize that this is an attempt at reconciliation and demonstrating something akin to love for the daughter who has made her mark in theatre rather than film. 

There is an intriguing scene of only a minute or so which comes during a reading of this script by a famous flim actor and it is actually repeated later with the daughters. These are the the only overtly spiritual vignettes in the picture and they concern prayer and forgiveness: 

• Rachel Kemp: [reading the monologue off Gustav's script during the table read] I had this kind of... crisis. I was alone in the house again, lying in my bed, crying. I know everyone lies in bed crying, but... 
• Someone said praying isn't really talking to God. It's acknowledging the despair. To throw yourself on the ground because that's all you can do. Not unlike lying with your heart broken, thinking... "Please, call me.", "Please, forgive me.", "Please, take me back." And...
• [she starts tearing up]
• 
  
• Rachel: I had fucked up. And I was alone, and crying. And then, for the first time, I sat down on the floor... and prayed. I don't know who I said it to, but, I said it out loud, "Help me, I can't do this anymore. I can't do it alone. I want a home. I want a home."

I'd apologize for the profanity, but -- hey-- there is was. 

Is this an admission of wrong-doing, a plea for forgiveness by the Prodigal Father, rather than by a wayward child ? Sentimenal Value is two hours-plus but it held us to the end. This moment alone could be worthwhile discussion starter about the meaning of prayer and forgiving the seemingly unforgivable.