"Toni Erdmann" is a film that I have always liked and always recommended. Beloved during and since its release, I was never in full agreement with the rest of the viewpoints. Sure it is good and original, but the movie itself is lifeless and overly long. It isn't alive like "Baby Driver" and that is okay, but being drawn out beyond its appropriate pace just amplifies this flaw of slowness. "Toni Erdmann" is an excellent example of length hurting a film.
The best thing "Toni Erdmann" has going for it is its originality. With something fresh that you've never seen before, this is a film easy to get into at first look. The heart of this is a father-daughter story about a middle school music teacher named Winfried Conradi who has a bizarre sense of humour trying to reconnect with his successful daughter, Ines, who is a stressed business woman. How he inserts himself into her life is what the movie is about.
The other thing that the movie is about is globalization. Everything with Ines and her work is boring and could have been cut out. I think having a completely different movie that focuses on the business stuff would have been better. "Toni Erdmann" would have been shorter in length and both stories would have been written better with more dedicated writing. I guess Ines' business stuff is mildly interesting.
Ines lives in Bucharest and is a success. She is also up to her elbows in work and doesn't have much time to write or talk to her father. Winfied decides to pay a visit to Bucharest to spend time with his daughter around her birthday. He doesn't fit in at all, but that doesn't stop him from reconnecting with his daughter. He dons an alter ego named Toni Erdmann, wearing fake teeth, and a long brown wig that does not match his grey, wrinkly face. What kind of person WOULDN'T be humiliated by such an ugly personality hanging around them. Luckily, this bizarre character is the key to making Ines more empathetic.
"Toni Erdmann" is a memorable movie. Legendary director Howard Hawkes once said "to make a good film, all you need are three good scenes and no bad ones." This 2016 film mostly falls in that category (no bad scenes, just a few boring ones). The first and my favourite features Toni playing the Whitney Houston song "The Greatest Love of All" in piano while Ines sings it. The song is beautiful and we can feel the emotions pouring in when she sings it. Despite Ines showing outward emotions, she sings off key! So despite feeling in this dramatic scene, we also laugh hard. The other two scenes are not worth writing about here; one it too complicated and the other is a sex scene that's too inappropriate.
At well over two-and-a-half hours, there is no way that every minute is earned. Simple scenes and subplots could have been cut altogether. That would have made the movie much better. And as a quite and calm film, most people wouldn't be able to handle all this at such a length. The only reason so many of these recent slow-burners have been such successes is because they know roughly how long the average person can handle it before being bored.
I am not bashing "Toni Erdmann," I just think a masterpiece was buried deep in something that could have been great, but was just good.
3/4.
The best thing "Toni Erdmann" has going for it is its originality. With something fresh that you've never seen before, this is a film easy to get into at first look. The heart of this is a father-daughter story about a middle school music teacher named Winfried Conradi who has a bizarre sense of humour trying to reconnect with his successful daughter, Ines, who is a stressed business woman. How he inserts himself into her life is what the movie is about.
The other thing that the movie is about is globalization. Everything with Ines and her work is boring and could have been cut out. I think having a completely different movie that focuses on the business stuff would have been better. "Toni Erdmann" would have been shorter in length and both stories would have been written better with more dedicated writing. I guess Ines' business stuff is mildly interesting.
Ines lives in Bucharest and is a success. She is also up to her elbows in work and doesn't have much time to write or talk to her father. Winfied decides to pay a visit to Bucharest to spend time with his daughter around her birthday. He doesn't fit in at all, but that doesn't stop him from reconnecting with his daughter. He dons an alter ego named Toni Erdmann, wearing fake teeth, and a long brown wig that does not match his grey, wrinkly face. What kind of person WOULDN'T be humiliated by such an ugly personality hanging around them. Luckily, this bizarre character is the key to making Ines more empathetic.
"Toni Erdmann" is a memorable movie. Legendary director Howard Hawkes once said "to make a good film, all you need are three good scenes and no bad ones." This 2016 film mostly falls in that category (no bad scenes, just a few boring ones). The first and my favourite features Toni playing the Whitney Houston song "The Greatest Love of All" in piano while Ines sings it. The song is beautiful and we can feel the emotions pouring in when she sings it. Despite Ines showing outward emotions, she sings off key! So despite feeling in this dramatic scene, we also laugh hard. The other two scenes are not worth writing about here; one it too complicated and the other is a sex scene that's too inappropriate.
At well over two-and-a-half hours, there is no way that every minute is earned. Simple scenes and subplots could have been cut altogether. That would have made the movie much better. And as a quite and calm film, most people wouldn't be able to handle all this at such a length. The only reason so many of these recent slow-burners have been such successes is because they know roughly how long the average person can handle it before being bored.
I am not bashing "Toni Erdmann," I just think a masterpiece was buried deep in something that could have been great, but was just good.
3/4.