At its heart a story about a complex father/daughter relationship, with 2016’s Toni Erdmann, writer/director Maren Ade charts her tale down a highly original course as the pair work out their many issues in the most unorthodox of ways.
The German motion picture was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards this past year, with many seeing it as the outright favourite. . . it lost to the more politically relevant Iranian film The Salesman – Asghar Farhadi’s second win in this category.
Winfried Conradi (Peter Simonischek) is an all-out kook – a prankster who loves playing games with everyone he meets. Like a child in a man’s body, we first meet Winfried as he receives a package from a courier. Claiming that it is his brother’s (and that he was just released from jail for putting bombs in the mail), he leaves, returning moments later with a new outfit and fake teeth, pretending to be his criminally eccentric sibling.
It is quite the schtick, though you can understand why he is a divorced school teacher with a fractured relationship with his only child. His daughter, Ines (Sandra Hüller), is a business consultant, working long hours in Bucharest. Highly stressed, her father is not unaware of her plight, also noticing that she was talking to no one on the phone during her last visit – a troubling sign, at least to him.
After his aged and beloved dog dies, Winfried decides to make the trek to Romania to visit his daughter. It is a bit of a debacle, with him tagging along to an important meeting, only to meet Henneberg (Michael Wittenborn), an oil company CEO who Ines is desperately trying to woo – aiming to procure a contract. Instead of taking on a serious note, he tells the bigwig that he has hired a replacement daughter to fill the void as Ines is always so busy.
With things going from bad to worse, it is clear that the pair live on different planes. After letting his daughter sleep (a thoughtful gesture), it causes her to miss an opportunity to court some desirable clients. Deciding to leave, there is a memorable moment that finds the twosome waiting for the elevator to arrive, in awkward silence – a perfect depiction of their fractured relationship.
Heading to a bar and meeting her two friends, Ines tells them of her awful week with her father, only to learn that he is sitting with his back turned to them, wearing a raggedy, long-haired wig and unflattering fake teeth in his mouth. Taking on the persona of Toni Erdmann, he introduces himself as a businessman, life coach and an all around well-connected guy. Weaselling his way into Ines’ highfalutin life, will he be able to find a way to bond with his daughter, or will it only cause more strife in their lacking relationship?
Centred on the well-constructed characters that it depicts, Winfried is a lonely aging man, dealing with a growing number of health issues. With comedy being at his core, it is not surprising that he uses this rather unorthodox and somewhat childish way to try to have a breakthrough with his daughter. Ines is, despite her success, unhappy in life. Lonely, tired, and over-stressed, she is being drained by the phony and intrusive aspects of her job. Perhaps most lacking is an emotional bond to another human being. Work towers above all else in her less than balanced life. So, it is with the arrival of the eccentric Toni that things change, albeit slowly. Allowing for the characters to develop over time (a lengthy two hours and forty-two minutes), we become more and more immersed in their stories. Ines has a cold, calculated, and unempathetic vibe, trying to compete and out-match the male-centric environment she inhabits. Her father, someone who takes almost nothing seriously, sees this streak in his daughter and tries to open her eyes to the world, with all the fun and love found in it. Though Winfried’s first visit is a lighthearted disaster, she somehow manages to tolerate her father and his out-there talks on turtles, cheese graters and being the Ambassador of Germany while he takes on the bizarre persona upon his second attempt.
Tackled with great nuance and variety by the two leads, Simonischek masterfully develops the multi-faceted joker, while Hüller brings a rivetting depth to her persona. Though utterly different, in many ways they are part of the same coin. He is an amateur actor who delves into a wide variety of roles, yet Hüller’s Ines is the star, living her life while wearing a constant mask of acceptance, fake enjoyment and forced game playing. She may not partake in her father’s shenanigans, but she is an actor nonetheless, and a good one, despite the fact that she lacks confidence in herself.
There are countless moments that speak to the many facets mentioned above. While deciding what to wear for her birthday party, Ines frustratingly opens the door naked (finally finding a weird sort of confidence in seemingly being done with the endless work it takes to play the game that is her life). Dropping jaws, the word gets out and she eventually spins it as a team-building exercise for her and her workmates; some arrive and play along with the out-there stunt while others leave. Her father, bearing himself the only way he can, in full costume (unlike the rest of the party), arrives as a folkloric hairy beast (called a kukeri), showing his love the only way he knows how – through comedy. This scene alone is a wonderful example of human nature – exemplifying the reactions ranging from disgust to self-conscious joining-in; it being a perfect example of people’s comfort in their own skin. . . or lack thereof.
There is also a song performed by the duo – the ‘Ambassador’ Toni plays the piano while his daughter belts out Whitney Houston’s ‘Greatest Love of All’. Though she may be cajoled into doing it, it emphasizes that there is a playfulness in her, deep down inside. . . though, immediately following it, she storms out, heading back to the realities of her life.
Ending with an open discussion on happiness as well as a reflection on how key moments pass you by while you are busy in life, Toni Erdmann is an intriguing character study that falls within the genre of dramedy. Though the premise is comedic, much of the story revolves around the complex struggles of life and finding love in one another, despite our many differences. With a very European ending, there is no true conclusion, as with life. It is in many ways up to the audience to decide if progress has been made, or whether the comedic facade that momentarily, and spontaneously, oozes out of Ines, was just a one-time blip. Her cellphone may provide a clue to those looking for a hint. And, on a final note, it will be interesting to see how Hollywood handles their adaptation, which has already been announced and looks to be starring Jack Nicholson and Kristen Wiig. So, wig out for this excellent German import, there is a lot of heft to sink your (fake) teeth into.
Though there is enough English dialogue, it is mostly German with English subtitles