TONI ERDMANN – Review

Sandra Hüller as Ines, in TONI ERDMANN. Photo @ Komplizen Film, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

One of the nominees for this year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Language and a hit at Cannes, the German-language comedy TONI ERDMANN pits a very serious young businesswoman against her anything-but-serious father, who is desperate to reclaim their childhood closeness, no matter what. An ex-music teacher more accustomed to interacting with young children than adults, Dad is prone to wearing costumes, wigs and false buck teeth and impersonating various characters, which does not fit well with his single daughter’s high-powered career, especially as she is trying to negotiate a crucial international business deal. Boundaries – international and personal – are crossed with abandon, when the father turns up posing as Toni Erdmann, telling people he is either Ines’ CEO’s life coach or maybe an assistant to the German ambassador, depending – all in an effort to get his daughter’s attention.

As a child, Ines (Sandra Huller) was close to her eccentric, prankster dad Winfried (Peter Simonschek), but as an adult, she finds his corny jokes and irritating behavior wearing thin. Winfried is a unshaven, disheveled, slightly-overweight bear of a man shambling impulsively through the world, while Ines is polished, smartly dressed and slim, always organized and prepared. When dad’s chaos meets daughter’s rigid order, conflict is inevitable.

TONI ERDMANN is touching and warm-hearted, and writer/director Maren Ade has hit a chord here, at least for business-minded children of counter-culture boomer parents. Parents who cross boundaries are something familiar to many grown children, although few parents are as odd or relentless as Winfried, an ex-school music teacher who maybe spent too many years perfecting social skills for interactions with 7-year-olds, and is an overgrown kid himself.

When Dad shows up, uninvited, at Ines’ work place with a series of strange stories. Ines smoothly, calmly, handle each interruption, moving Dad out of the way.

She keeps thinking she has put her dad back in his box, only to have him escape and pop up once again. Once he appears as Toni Erdmann, deflecting him becomes much more difficult. It is not clear if her business colleagues believe Toni Erdmann and his tales, or are just being polite and confused.

However, Winfried has a goal beyond just getting his daughter’s attention – he’s trying to save her from an empty life. Ines is so driven, so focused, so globalized that she has no other real life than her career. Her father’s pranks disrupt her business dealings but also underscore what she is missing in life. Toni Erdmann forces her to connect with people on a human level.

Writer/director Ade inserts a dose of social commentary into the comedy, commentary on the costs of globalization and on business practices that dismiss the real impact on human lives. The German company for which Inez works uses its greater economic strength in making a deal in less economically-powerful Romania. Within her own company, her father’s intrusions also reveal the work place sexism Inez faces as well as the company’s toxically high performance standards. Actually, the film has a little fun with the word “performance,” as in “work performance evaluation” versus the improvised “performance art” of alter-ego Toni Erdmann.

This is the third film for Ade and she shows a firm hand is directing the nearly three-hour film. She is aided greatly by a pair of terrific acting performances by Simonschek and Huller as the father and daughter. The film perfectly captures the relationship between this daughter and father, a mix of affection and tolerance on her part and a longing to reconnect on his. Huller’s Ines is rarely surprised by her dad’s pranks, playing along like they are well-rehearsed routines. When he invades her business dealings, her reaction betrays some embarrassment but she remains calm until they are alone. Even then, it takes a lot to crack her emotional control. Huller does an outstanding job portraying Ines’ transformation, as critical insights sparked by her Dad’s unconventional actions lead to changes in her career and life. Simonschek comes across as sincere but whether his character’s corny joking and his boundary crossing charms or irritates might depend on the viewer.

TONI ERDMANN is a thought-provoking, touching film. Much of it is funny, but not all the comedy works. Sometimes the film seems to be trying too hard: some jokes go on too long or strive for whimsy or an absurdist humor, only to achieve the mere ridiculous (really now, how many of us would invite our boss to a nude birthday party?) Still, there is one particularly magical scene in this father-daughter comedy, in which Ines is forced by her father’s deceptions to sing in front of a houseful of strangers. Huller sings with a gripping abandon, even if her voice is not perfect, and the scene is one of the most memorable in the film.

How much TONI ERDMANN pleases individual viewers might depends on how much Simonschek’s overgrown imp amuses and the film’s chaos versus order theme appeals to him or her. Many have praised it as transformative while others have had a cooler response. Regardless, the film’s warm message of the importance of human relationships, family and cultural connections is universal.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars