Toni Erdmann (2016)

[alanwaston]

Written and Directed by: Maren Ade

Starring: Peter Simonischek, Sandra Hüller, Michael Wittenborn, Thomas Loibl, Thrystan Pütter, Hadewych Minis, Lucy Russell, Ingrid Bisu, Vlad Ivanov, Victoria Cocias

Synopsis: Winfried doesn’t see much of his working daughter Ines. The suddenly student-less music teacher decides to surprise her with a visit after the death of his old dog. It’s an awkward move because serious career woman Ines is working on an important project as a corporate strategist in Bucharest. The geographical change doesn’t help the two to see more eye to eye. Practical joker Winfried loves to annoy his daughter with corny pranks. What’s worse are his little jabs at her routine lifestyle of long meetings, hotel bars and performance reports. Father and daughter reach an impasse, and Winfried agrees to return home to Germany.

Enter flashy Toni Erdmann: Winfried’s smooth-talking alter ego. Disguised in a tacky suit, weird wig and even weirder fake teeth, Toni barges into Ines’ professional life, claiming to be her CEO’s life coach. As Toni, Winfried is bolder and doesn’t hold back, but Ines meets the challenge. The harder they push, the closer they become. In all the madness, Ines begins to understand that her eccentric father might deserve some place in her life after all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0uwi5EPnpA[/media]
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[kevinknapman]

I saw this at the London Film Festival in October and though it wasn't quite as great as reports from Cannes suggested it is an interesting curio nonetheless.
The story of a father and daughter with a troubled relationship, the father Winfried has a tendency to not take life too seriously, adopting disguises and personas much to the exasperation of his daughter Ines. While visiting her in Bucharest where she works, his attempts to reconnect are unsuccessful, leading him to don false teeth and a comedy fright wig for his latest persona, life coach Toni Erdmann. Used to this kind of behaviour, Ines can only play along.
Not exactly an uproarious comedy, Toni Erdmann has several very funny moments, but writer/director Maren Ade choses not to mine the situation for obvious laughs throughout, instead choosing to focus on the fractured father/daughter relationship that drives the film.
She is best served in this regard by Peter Simonischek and Sandra Huller as Winfried/Toni and Ines, who are both excellent.
Though there are moments over its unnecessarily long running time that I was left wondering what the hell it was I was watching, it's still worth a look.

[elski]

On my way to the screening this morning, thought I would check on the running time 2hours 42mins

[youpigirl]

Saw this in Aldgate. What can I say....2 hours too long.
Some funny moments. Some very touching moments sandwiched in a lot of irrelevant nonsense.
I thought about leaving the screening two or three times as I didn't really understand where this was going or how much longer I had to endure watching other people's lives.
At one point I realised that this movie could be endless, Corrie style, but it did come to an end eventually.
5/10 from me.

[ejwrank]

Annoyingly quirky yet still so boring. All three of us left unimpressed.

[Sunset_boulevard]

Saw it at Aldgate, the cinema is nice and smells of new, and fresh paint, but the film was quite disappointing, due to the raised expectations. And a lot of minutes should have been on the floor of the eding room. Some funny moments here and there.

[Florence1]

I saw this at the Victoria Curzon which was a first. It is a nice cinema with nice lounge areas to sit in. I know this was quite long but I quite enjoyed it. I found it quite compelling to watch because I never knew what was going to happen next. The acting was really good and I found the story quite touching being about this successful woman who didn't appear to be very happy in her job and her difficult relationship with her father. The part where the father pretends to be the German ambassador I found quite hilarious. All in all an enjoyable film but probably not for everyone. 6.5/10

[ladams888]

Saw this at the Wimbledon Curzon (first time I have been to a screening there). It was billed as a comedy, but the 2 hour 42 minute joke was built around a wig and a pair of false teeth. Mildly amusing at first - but by the end of the film that joke had been done to death. There were very few laugh-out-loud moments – mainly embarrassed titters from the audience. The film was about the bonding between father and daughter after he unexpectedly turns up as his alter ego, Toni Erdmann, at her workplace in Romania. I kept expecting it to develop into something more, but it was very slow and plodding. It was also very poorly edited – I could have easily cut an hour out – in fact I could very probably cut 2 hours and 42 minutes from this pretentious claptrap. 1/10

[D-Fens]

Disagree about the length, sometimes it's nice to give your afternoon or evening over to a movie and just live in a different world for a few hours. I was never bored, it has a watchable quality that some foreign movies just seem to have and it's not like anything I've seen. Sometimes that's enough to sway critics.

I'm not sure why it's being given such a push though, Picturehouse describes it as "Maren Ade's hilarious and triumphant comedy has caused a stir among film critics for its bellyaching humour and absurd playfulness. A must-see." The only humour I could find was of "The Office" variety and cringing has the opposite effect. See-if-it's-free.