But, unlike the Academy, I clearly preferred Jay Kelly. In Jay Kelly, George Clooney really tries, in his stumbling, deeply flawed way, to be a better father, but it’s too late, and he completely fails to win his daughters over. In the end, he gets acclaim as an artist, but he now knows it’s hollow. That felt real and painful. As a father, this movie really moved me.
In Sentimental Value, Stellan Skarsgard remains a raging asshole and his daughters nevertheless totally cave at the end because they realize he’s such a great artist. Despite the fact that he treats them like dog feces the entire movie, one submits herself and the other submits her son to his new magnum opus. That felt like a power fantasy on the part of the filmmakers. As a father, this one just pissed me off.
Wouldn’t it have been possible for some attempt at growth in Sentimental Value? Like maybe he does force himself to sit through one of his daughter’s plays? Like maybe he begins to realize he shouldn’t have given his ten year old grandson Irreversible and The Piano Teacher on DVD? (A joke you only get if you’re familiar with the content of those movies.) It was an interesting “Portrait of the Asshole as an Old Man”, but not as interesting as it would have been if he had at least a shred of inner turmoil.
Sentimental Value is the more artistically made movie (I’ve always liked the filmmaker and highlighted one of his early movies way back in 2010), but Jay Kelly was so much more human and heartfelt and, thus, painful. Watching Clooney try and fail is so much more interesting than watching Skarsgard not try and succeed anyway.
It is true that the daughters have meatier roles in Sentimental Value (I’m not sure they were Oscar-worthy, though) but, the meatier they are, the more frustrating that they just morally collapse. As a writer or a moviegoer, there’s only so much you can respect characters who, in the end, show no self-respect.
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