‘Toni Erdmann’ Review: An Epic of Awkward Comedy

'Toni Erdmann'

Movie Rating:

3.5

‘Toni Erdmann’ was the unlikely toast of Cannes last year. Other movies may have debuted with bigger hype and with more established talented at the helm, but something about Maren Ade’s two-and-three-quarter-hour ode to laughing at life’s many indignities seemed to get the notoriously prickly Cannes crowds cheering more than anything else.

On one hand, the success makes sense. Ade was a budding filmmaker set to bloom with her third feature after a great deal of early critical support. On the other hand, the film can often feel surprisingly conventional for the arty pretentious pissing contest that is Cannes. Despite the bladder-bursting running time, a scattershot subplot about the restructuring of the European workforce, and the subtitles, ‘Toni Erdman’ can often feel like a ‘Patch Adams’-style tale about a father teaching his stuffy daughter how to laugh again. That’s all sweet and nice, but it will be amusing to see all the folks currently claiming that ‘Toni Erdmann’ is the greatest thing ever retract their over-enthusiastic raving once an inevitable American remake arrives that has the audacity of doing the exact same thing in English with movie stars and a reasonable running time.

Peter Simonischek stars as Toni Erdmann, or more accurately as Winfried Conradi. He’s a 60-something teacher in a small town. We get the impression that he’s known some failure and darkness in his life. He gets by with a prankster sense of humor that everyone around him seems to wearily accept because they long ago learned better than to question his odd jokes laced with unexpected melancholy (and typically involving a horrible set of false teeth). One day, he decides to unexpectedly drop in on his daughter, Ines (Sandra Huller, in a genuinely fantastic performance), a workaholic corporate consultant who’s losing track of her life. He tries to make nice, but she can’t find time. So, he puts in his trademark false teeth, tosses on a horrible wig, and poses as a life coach named Toni Erdmann. From there, the old man willfully throws his daughter’s life into chaos. As much as she hates his presence and the parade of awkwardness that follows, Ines eventually begins to realize that there’s more to life than soulless work and it all starts with having a laugh. (Awwww… ain’t that sweet?)

On a fundamental level, ‘Toni Erdmann’ is a brand of inspirational comedy that feels rather cloy and manipulative. However, Ade at least hangs more complicated ideas on that well-worn structure. The film touches on sexism in the workplace, with the Erdmann character helping his daughter see the ways in wish she routinely accepts degradation as a byproduct of her job. There’s also the fact that Ines’ job is laying off employees for outsourcing, which allows the film to touch on the ways the contemporary European market is crushing local workers.

These are all timely ideas worth exploring, but they feel shoehorned into an awkward bonding comedy that can barely contain them. Ade’s film constantly diverts into episodes of import before cycling back to a more traditional form of storytelling that isn’t quite as interesting and feels barely related. The weightier material feels superfluous and rarely has the impact that the filmmaker craves. It can be downright irritating, especially since the movie takes two full hours before it settles into anything resembling a satisfying rhythm.

Fortunately, something undeniably amusing about the central relationship keeps the film afloat. For reasons known only to herself, Huller’s character allows her father to infiltrate her life and blow it up for his own amusement and some harsh life lessons. After spending ages dipping in and out of various tenuously connected subplots, the film snaps into place in the final hour. A few painfully awkward sequences ring as comedy gold in a manner that the rest of the film barely comes close to matching. Huller is at the center and crushes them, playing pain, anguish and hopeless embarrassment deathly straight and earning some massive cringeworthy laughs in the process. Simonischek is also strong, but his character never quite connects as it should. He’s never quite funny, deliberately so. It’s also never clear why everyone around him accepts his bizarre comedy act without question. The whole thing feels like a contrivance, but at least the relationship between the two leads is strong enough to make it go down eventually. Granted, that includes an almost embarrassingly on-the-nose finale to wrap things up with a thesis and a bow. ‘Toni Erdmann’ sure is a weird movie.

Thankfully, it’s also quite a good film, just not the masterpiece that it’s been lauded as. The movie has two brilliant sequences, a handful of worthy ideas, one great performance and one quite good one. That’s more quality than most movies serve up. A far more satisfying two-hour version of the film is likely buried within this endless rough cut, and some opportunities for a more striking visual aesthetic should have been taken.

Still, there’s no denying the peaks of the film and the admirable ambition that Ade doesn’t quite hit. For many, this will be the director’s breakout that cements her as one of Europe’s most interesting voices. For others, it’s another promising outing for a filmmaker just about to come into her own. I fall into the latter category and may be in the minority for it. The only way to find out what group that you’re in is to sign up for two hours of potentially middling laughs and a bunch of faffing about before hitting an impressive 45-minute stride at the finish line.

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