Toni Erdmann (2016)

Thanks for the memories!

Just perfect...

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

First: I am very glad that ,finally, I read critics from many people who have really knowledge about what making a feature film is. The film is very boring, too long, uninteresting characters, for most people the dialogs are moreover not interesting for most viewers. For example: most people will not be interested in conversations about commercial activities of CEO's. There are some funny moments, yes..... Really a movie to forget as soon as possible. It made me glad that Cannes did not give any prize to this movie Its therefor even more a shame that there was given the Prize of the international filmcritic: do the members of this "club" have also an interest to promote this film? In Holland there are also some filmcritics who seem to have an interest to promote some bad films.....

I was expecting better from the buzz I heard about it, but this felt like an edgy European version of the "kooky and infantile oaf teaches sad sophisticates how to laugh" movie. Except, where American movies tend to amp up the slapstick or stupidity of the characters, here the protagonist just uses awful props, out-of-touch dad humor, and absurdity. The absurdity of the final act does create a handful of moments of suspense, where you genuinely wonder what's going to happen next, but overwhelmingly there's never a payoff. The whole story is just two remarkably inconsiderate people interacting with a host of characters who don't seem to have enough cohesive traits to form their own personalities. I'm sure there is meant be a subtle running commentary on identity, considering the masks, the props, and the nudity, but instead of evoking any poignant reflection, it just induces eye-rolling annoyance. Imagine someone at your work handing you a stop sign and a plastic rose first thing in the morning and telling you to really think about it. The acting and casting are solid, and I suppose I should applaud the effort too, but overall, there's not enough to compel me to watch it again.

While it might not be the general consensus but I didn't really enjoy this movie that much. The idea and the story were fine but the way it was all put together just didn't work for me. The beginning of the movie was so slow, not setting a good feel for the main action of the movie. My other main issue was the characters. I struggled to connect with either the father or daughter thus taking me out of the movie. While I understand the father was a practical joker I got the feeling more of that he was doing his bits without any thought of the people he was doing them too, thus I just couldn't feel sorry for him. As to his daughter I never felt like I ever could get a handle of just who she was. This of course was not the design of the director so I can see where I failed to fully understand the movie as designed to be seen.

The characters are perfectly framed to describe the fractured relation between a divorced man entertained mostly by his own jokes and his career oriented - forever busy daughter. The movie starts off with what it looks like a cold/monotonous father-daughter relation and progresses with a series of clashes and pranks (some of them eccentric, others pretty dull) that lead to a (more human) tension between the two. This movie can take you through a mix of feelings: amusement (personally, i laughed to tears), cringe (as a consequence of ridiculously embarrassing scenes) and sadness (the ho-hum corporate life, with minor peaks of enthusiasm but mostly covered in tiredness and personal isolation). Would have appreciated a more compact version of this movie, but it was enjoyable nevertheless.