Review of Toni Erdmann (2016) by Reginthorn — 16 Mar 2017

I am unsure of how I feel about Toni Erdmann. On the one hand, Toni Erdmann is a film with a huge heart. The premise is simple enough to follow. Essentially, a father (Winfried Conradi), in an existential crisis of sorts, uses an alter ego in order to reconnect with his corporate-driven daughter.

The corporation Conradi’s daughter works for is as stereotypically capitalistic as it gets. The film utilizes the process of globalization and corporate culture as a means to amplify the disconnect in the father/daughter relationship.

The viewer gets the sense Winfriend was a hippie back in the day. Toni Erdmann often works because the characters are extremely complex. I enjoy films in which the characters exist without an explicit concern for audience expectations.

Primary or secondary characters often ramble about subjects which are not necessarily tied to the main narrative. In these moments, the camera will focus on setting up characters in the background or illustrate the state of the speaker’s mind.

The fictional events on screen are shown to be natural slices of life. Conradi is only predictable in that he is desperate to reconnect with his daughter, Ines. Often, Conradi as Toni Erdmann resorts to pranks in an attempt to goad out some repressed nature in Ines.

Humor organically flows in the awkward situations Erdmann flings into. In short, Toni Erdmann has many moments which are pure comedy gold. The core nature of Toni Erdmann’s (the film) humor is laid bare near the film’s climax.

The faults of Toni Erdmann, unfortunately, stem from some of the films’ strengths. As primarily a drama, the humor is inconsistent in where and how long it occurs. The film also allows characters a little too much breathing time.

After a key moment, the camera decides it wants to follow the characters around. The argument could be said the choice aides in giving the characters an added depth towards physicality. By physicality, I mean the subtle body languages in a character.

However, Toni Erdmann is an almost three-hour affair. A lot of people walked out around the film’s halfway point. Personally, I walked out of the theatre wishing the director had opted to cut about thirty minutes.

Character development is at times made explicit in narrative exposition. As a result, the extra attention to body language feels a bit redundant. I might be being a little harsh due to my unfamiliarity with German cinema.

Ultimately, I think the film was worth my time.