Toni Erdmann
(2016)
(SPOILERS) It’s easy to see why Maren Ade’s rambling,
rumpled – it rather resembles its protagonist in form – tragi-comedy was
instantly snapped up by Hollywood (or more especially by Jack Nicholson,
promising to come out of retirement for a golden role; we shall see…), as, with
a few minor tweaks and a directive to over- rather than underplay, it bears all
the hallmarks of a classic uplifting Hollywood narrative. I’m not sure I buy
into its miraculous hype, however (including a Best Foreign Film Oscar
nomination and Sight & Sound’s
best film of 2016). The performances in Toni
Erdmann are top notch, the scenarios often funny, sad, excruciating, but it’s
also content to meander and overly devotes itself to the idea that vérité equates
to depth.
The S&S synopsis
summarised the picture thus: “A shambling
baby boomer pushes his high-achieving daughter’s buttons with a series of
increasingly bizarre practical jokes”. Which makes it sound like it would
have been ideal for Robin Williams. But suggesting Winfried Conradi (Peter
Simonischek) is so calculated is to falsely present the picture. His guise as
Toni Erdmann is as improvised and unstructured as Ade’s directorial style, and
his jokes often come nowhere near to paying off – commonly amounting to little
more than his ever-ready upper dentures, a brunette wig and announcing himself
as variously a life coach or the German Ambassador to Romania. Indeed, Ade
resists so consistently the opportunity for a cathartic comic set piece (Winfried
puts the corporate machine in its place! Winfried humiliates the priapic
boyfriend!) that you can practically see the Tinseltown hacks salivating at the
potential.
That’s because the essential arc is that of your classic big
screen comedy; free-spirited parent imposes himself on his uptight,
emotionally-sterile daughter’s life with hilarious and meaningful results. Add
in the disguise aspect, albeit not even remotely fooling anyone who knows – the
most mirthful results come at the outset, when Winfried poses as his twin
brother for the postie, speaking enthusiastically about the mail bomb he’s just
received and can’t wait to defuse – and you have potential for schmaltz-heavy
sentiment and Mrs Doubtfire hijinks.
Toni Erdmann
doesn’t play that way, and resists the easy fix/resolution. Winfried is no
paragon of virtue; in many respects, he’s just as lost as his daughter, only
with a less overtly debilitating approach to how he deals with it. But still,
his wife left him for reasons that don’t need spelling out, his best friend is
his on-his-last-legs dog, and with an approach of always being “on”, it isn’t
hard to see why even moderate and well-rounded offspring would have
reservations about spending swathes of time with him.
Ines Conradi (Sandra Huller) is a consultant advising the
oil industry on downsizing, so a combination of turn-offs right there. She
entirely goes with the get-ahead flow, soullessly giving her assistant (who
hangs on her every instruction, and even found Ines’ apartment for her) performance
tips. And as much as she may know her job, her iciness inevitably backfires
when trying to impress, particularly with her father hanging on. He’s already
told the CEO (Michael Wittenborn) she’s attempting to get on board that he has
hired a substitute daughter (later, when Ines attempts to ditch dad for drinks
with the CEO, the latter scolds her attitude). She feigns concern for Winfred
being ditched while she spends hours shopping with the CEO’s wife (“Are you really a human?” he responds)
and proceeds to scornfully dismiss the loss of his beloved pet to friends (only
to find her father sitting at the bar next to her).
But something of him begins to work its way into her psyche.
“Toni” has struck a chord, such that, even though she can accuse her father of
being as lacking in perspective as she (“Do
you have plans in life, other than slipping far cushions under people”: “I don’t have a fart cushion”), she can’t
help laughing a few scenes later when her father, on a bench, interrupts her
boss with an explosive outburst (“Did he
just fart?”)
Ines slow breakdown manifests in increasingly
bewildering/humorous fashion (and from the first, we can see she’s her father’s
daughter, matching him for cutting ripostes – “Great. She can call you on your birthday so I don’t have to” is her
reaction to “news” of his substitute daughter), instructing her colleague/lover
to ejaculate on a petit-four (which she proceeds to consume) and her outpouring
of emotion in song – under pressure from Toni, for whom she is posing as his assistant
– in a manner she cannot otherwise express.
The slowly poisonous consequences of a job in which she is
causing others misery and destitution hits home when Toni takes issue with the
sacking of an employee as a result of a joke remark he made. She dismisses his
“green” attitude and conciliatory gestures
(“I can’t believe you told them not to
lose their humour”), leading to her alarming/hilarious meltdown decision to
turned her birthday into a “naked party”.
At which Winfried also appears, dressed as a Bulgarian kukeri (I assumed it was
a yeti) leading to her heartfelt hugging of her hirsute father.
It’s appropriate that there’s no upbeat resolution to Toni Erdmann, though. Ines hasn’t left
her job; rather, she’s sidestepped from Bucharest to Singapore. Toni may have
reconnected with her, but his world is one of increasing isolation (his dog and
then his mother die), and he finds himself contemplating how the precious
moments can only be perceived with hindsight. His life, and ours, are “so often about getting things done”. So
yeah, put a positive spin on that, and it could be a goldmine. Let’s face it,
there isn’t much depth to its critique of globalisation (it hurts people, and
you most of all when you go along with it), so that could probably stay as is. And
when Jack drops out, perhaps find someone who more approximates Simmonischek’s
bearish gait – Ron Perlman springs to mind. Also, honing the material a touch
would do no harm either.
Agree? Disagree? Mildly or vehemently? Let me know in the comments below.