How to Use sentimentalize in a Sentence

sentimentalize

verb

• The movie sentimentalizes the past.
• He does not sentimentalize in his biography.
• The filmmakers don’t try to tone down Dahl’s darkness or sentimentalize the children’s plight.
  — Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 Dec. 2022
• Those who forget the past may be condemned to repeat it, but those who sentimentalize the past are rewarded with best-seller status.
  — Carlos Lozada, The New Yorker, 22 Nov. 2021
• Kimberly tries her darnedest not to feel sorry for herself, and the authors pay her the respect of not permitting us to sentimentalize her much, either.
  — Peter Marks, Washington Post, 11 Nov. 2022
• Even bluesy entr’actes, though achingly sung and strummed by Martin Luther McCoy, only sentimentalize and downplay a story that wants to stretch upward.
  — Lily Janiak, San Francisco Chronicle, 2 May 2018
• Unlike most war stories, All Quiet on the Western Front makes no effort to justify or sentimentalize either side of the conflict.
  — Time, 2 Nov. 2022
• But without sentimentalizing in the least, Irons’ James allows us to sympathize with a husband and father who’s helpless to undo the damage everyone blames him for.
  — Charles McNulty, latimes.com, 12 June 2018
• The Obama-Biden origin story has been often told, and often sentimentalized.
  — New York Times, 16 Aug. 2019
• Unlike many Holocaust films that sentimentalize individual heroism, Caught by Night doesn’t seek to inspire so much as to bear witness.
  — Jeremy Lybarger, The New York Review of Books, 20 Apr. 2020
• This week, though, no one should, under the pressure of Trumpism, sentimentalize Macron, or underrate his difficulties.
  — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 25 May 2017
• Eric sentimentalizes family, and badly wants one of his own.
  — Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 25 Nov. 2019
• Cruise is a likable wrongdoer, but Neeson’s Felt is sentimentalized.
  — Armond White, National Review, 29 Sep. 2017
• Fontane neither condemns nor sentimentalizes, but tells his tale with clarity and humor—making this picture of Berlin society all the more devastating.
  — Claire Tomalin, WSJ, 22 Nov. 2018
• This extinction engine does not sentimentalize or aestheticize the materials of the world.
  — Anne Boyer, Harper's Magazine, 27 Apr. 2021
• War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality.
  — Chuck Yarborough, cleveland, 9 Oct. 2019
• Keeping both feet firmly on the ground and refusing to sentimentalize an essentially unlikeable character, Brown triumphs as Charley’s flinty mother.
  — Marilyn Stasio, Variety, 3 Nov. 2021
• Wajda and Linda refuse to sentimentalize Strzeminski’s plight.
  — Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 26 May 2017
• Nothing if not a rigorous dialectician, Bong refuses to sentimentalize the Kims’ togetherness or their poverty.
  — Mark Olsenstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct. 2019
• Her transitions from social observation to personal revelations (family home videos and her sister’s social work) sentimentalize exploitation of the working class by the bourgeoisie.
  — Armond White, National Review, 13 July 2022
• Hollywood geeks might sentimentalize Casablanca, but Breathless goes deeper.
  — Armond White, National Review, 16 Sep. 2022
• In the process, though, the novel diminishes her vivid voice and personality, softens her views, and minimizes some essential relationships while sentimentalizing or coarsening others.
  — Sarah Stone, San Francisco Chronicle, 31 May 2018
• But Owen does exactly nothing to sentimentalize his character; his performance is uncompromised.
  — Matthew Gilbert, BostonGlobe.com, 30 Aug. 2019
• Romanticizing and sentimentalizing death and destruction this way belongs to a deep-set (almost psychotic) liberal fantasy.
  — Armond White, National Review, 4 Aug. 2017
• Unfortunately, Reyna rarely rises above stereotype, either sentimentalized by Cora or demonized by Troy.
  — Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, New York Times, 5 Jan. 2018
• No one enjoys a cynical, sloppy, sentimentalized dramatization of an incendiary social issue.
  — John Anderson, WSJ, 25 Apr. 2019

Last Updated: 5 Sep 2024