VERDICTSet in the unpromising world of German
business consultancy,Toni Erdmannisalow-key
triumph, especially for writer-director Maren
Ade and star Sandra Hüller. A weird, thoughtful,
hugely affecting treat.IF YOU WANTa snapshot of the oddball
brilliance ofToni Erdmann, just hoover up some
of the IMDb plot keywords: “father-daughter
relationship”, “false teeth”, “woman watching
man masturbate”, “capitalism”, “zombie
make-up”, and “reference to Whitney Houston”.
Writer-director Maren Ade’s 2016 Cannes
darling works very hard to stack the odds against
itself. It’s nearly three hours long. It’s set in the
densely detailed world of German business
consultants. It’s a comedy built around wigs,
whoopee cushions and jizzing onpetits fours.
Yet the result is funny, perceptive, alive to
life’s richness and absurdities and in itsinal
moments, absolutely devastating.
The set-up sounds like well-tooled Hollywood
comedy: prankster dad cheers up his workaholic
daughter through wacky personas — saccharine
life lessons ensue. Happily, Ade has no truck with
formula. Thanks to great writing and superlative
performances, the relationship between
good-hearted, hang-dog Winfried (Simonischek)
and his daughter, built-for-business Ines (Hüller),
feels authentic — deftly toggling between
affection and stone-cold exasperation. There is
no ill intent or malice on either side but the pair
can’t help but disappoint each other over and
over again. And it’s a joy to watch.
Ade delivers laughs in spades — there is
something of the deadpan absurdity ofA
Swedish Love Storydirector Roy Andersson in
her worldview — and creates a malleable tone
that can take in a man dressed as a tree and
always feel real. Yet she never forgets to mine the
human from the high concept. It’s in beautifully
observed moments such as when Ines and
Winfried say goodbye to each other yet have to
endure an awkward, agonising wait for a lift.
From its opening scene — Winfried plays an
elaborate joke on a courier — to a naked party
set-piece to its climactic moment of heart-
rending surrealism,Toni Erdmannhits so many
different notes and colours. The effect is dazzling.
This range also runs to telling social
commentary. It is a ilm with a keen sense of the
shifting landscape of Europe (as Ines plans to
make people redundant, Ade’s camera pointedly
wanders from the meeting room to capture the
poverty outside) and gender dynamics in the
workplace, quietly etching the way women are
subtly demeaned in professional life. Just watch
how Ines is taken ininitely more seriously justTONI ERDMANN
DIRECTORMaren Ade
CASTPeter Simonischek, Sandra Hüller,
Michael Wittenborn, Thomas Loibl
PLOTWinfried Conradi (Simonischek) is a divorced
piano teacher with a passion for practicaljokes.
Grieving the death of his pet dog, he travels to
Bucharest to reconnect with his daughter in the
guise of his alter-ego, life coach Toni Erdmann.
OUT9 FEBRUARY
★★★★★ RATEDM/162 MINS
because she has a man by her side, even if he is
a weapons-grade buffoon.
One of its manifold pleasures is seeing its
initially unsympathetic, borderline unlikeable
protagonists reveal previously untapped depths,
softer sides and vulnerabilities. Beneath
Winfried’s irritating Beadle-like penchant for
wind-ups and dad jokes comes an openness
about the world. Similarly Ines’ career-girl
defences come down gradually, charting a course
from business-like reserve to exhibitionism, until,
in spectacular fashion, she is warbling Whitney’s
The Greatest Love. Hüller’s performance is
beautifully modulated. In an alternative universe,
she will be bounding up the stairs of the Dolby
Theatre to the podium come 26 February. But in
the real world, let’s just marvel at the
achievements of a stunning central performance
in a genuine, droll, emotionally powerful oddity.
IAN FREER