movie review

Toni Erdmann (2016)

2024-03-21

A screwball comedy character in the present day real world. That is the image I am reminded of seeing Winfried in this movie. Played by the late Peter Simonischek, he brings a lot of physical comedy to the table, a lot of fake teeth, a lot of practical jokes and he is hilarious doing so. However, he is estranged from his daughter Ines, who he decides to visit in Bucharest without telling her beforehand upon the death of his dog. What follows is a story of the capitalist hellscape of lobbying for the oil industry and how it grinds people down, with the invader in the form of Winfried turning everything into a farce, following his daughter around to a scary degree, and bullshitting his way into private industry parties while Ines, the breakthrough movie role of Sandra Hüller, is slowly losing her patience with her dad and her job. The filmmaking is dry, almost at odds with the screwball humor at play in large parts of the movie, with no non-diegetic music and barely any camera movement in the individual shots. This style along with Ines' cold business woman attitude gives the film a very grounded and serious setting upon which Winfried is always there to wreack havoc over. No joke is spared no matter how dire the situation is, no matter how long ago the fake teeth stopped being funny, he keeps pulling them out to the bitter end.

9/10