Toni Erdmann | Maren Ade | NYFF 2016
For better or worse, the relationships with our parents help shape who we are or where we will go in life. A good relationship can make all the difference in building a successful life, but a bad one can have lingering consequences, even if on the surface a person is showing a great deal of confidence or stability in their outward appearance. We often focus on the effect of a relationship on the child, but what about the parents?
The idea of the relationship between father and daughter is the basis of Toni Erdmann, the latest from German director Maren Ade. The father in this relationship is Winfried (Peter Simonischek) a divorced music teacher who loves participating in goofy pranks that those on the receiving end often aren’t as receptive. This includes his daughter Ines (Sandra Hüller), who he has lost touch with over the years. She spends all her time working hard to try and make a career in the world of business consulting.
After the death of his dog he reaches out to her to try and reconnect, but she doesn’t share her father’s feelings. Winfried doesn’t give up so easily, and travels to Bucharest so he can surprise her at work. He just won’t give up, so she begrudgingly brings him along to her business dinners and receptions, but is afraid that she will scare off the very important client that she has to impress. But in an all too ironic twist, the client takes an immense liking to her father, to Ines’ dismay.
After so many years apart and then so much time spent together in such a short period of time eventually Winfried and Ines clash and she thinks she got rid of him for good. But he re-emerges day later as a fictional character named Toni Erdmann, sporting a bad wig and fake teeth. He won’t be disposed of that easily.
Ade’s film received a great deal of praise out of the Cannes Film Festival, so naturally, my expectations were quite sky high. I’ll admit that during some parts of the first half of the lengthy runtime of 162 minutes, it did take some time for me to really buy into what Ade was selling. But there’s a point in the film that immediately won me over, and based on the absolutely rapturous reception from the audience at my screening, it seems that I was not alone.
What Ade has crafted here in part drama and part oddball comedy that have plenty of twists and turns along the way that create a juggernaut of a movie that is quite simply a breath of fresh air from anything that you will see from Hollywood cinema this year. The daunting runtime can feel exhausting, but to the credit of Ade (who also wrote the script) every scene and direction leads up to the films absolutely scorching big moment which is easily one of the best cinematic moments of the year and quite possibly the decade. You’ll know it when you see it.
Ade has herself to thank for a clever and richly compelling script that makes so much out of a simple tale. But it’s the two lead performances that elevate the material and allow it to rise to the occasion. Peter Simonischek is absolutely charming in the role as the fatherly Winfried, finding a wide range of depth and humanity in the role of a father who knows that he’s screwed up with his daughter. Then there’s Sandra Hüller as the conflicted daughter who doesn’t want to let him back into her life but she can’t quite seem to get rid of him even though she thinks she wants to. One particular scene of her singing “Greatest Love of All” is a particular showcase of a wide range of emotions that shift in the matter of seconds. Both actors work off one another to bring the best out of each other, and the material itself.
Toni Erdmann is the rare film that grows on you as you watch it unfold, as you let it wash over you and register the wide range of emotions that are presented all at once. Ade captures a lot of truth here as life isn’t just funny or sad or frustrating or full of misplaced anger or even love. It’s a wide variation of all of them collected together like a bubble waiting to burst. Toni Erdmann captures all of them and then some, in stunning fashion.
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