Cannes Report: The Funny Father-Daughter Tale 'Toni Erdmann' Is Full of Surprises
(Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival)
The luminous Sandra Hüller gets to do many things in Toni Erdmann, the funny, astute father-daughter drama that had its first press screening at Cannes on Friday night. But perhaps her most surprising moment comes late in the film, when the German actress — playing an uptight businesswoman at a party she doesn’t want to be at — psychs herself up for an initially embarrassed, and then full-throated rendition of Whitney Houston’s “Greatest Love of All.” The Cannes audience was jolted into laughter, and then a genuine ovation, as Hüller hit a just-credible-enough high note to leave everyone a little bit stunned. Immediately after the screening, both Hüller and the movie were earning raves and talk of jury prizes.
It’s exactly those kinds of swerves that make Toni Erdmann such a delight. Written and directed by art-house talent Maren Ade — one of only three women directors in competition this year — the comedy-drama follows Winfried (Peter Simonischek), a shambling music teacher with a penchant for dad jokes that go too far, including the ludicrous false teeth he carries everywhere and pops in compulsively in the middle of conversations. He’s long-divorced from his wife and their grown daughter, Ines (Hüller), is an ambitious corporate consultant working in Bucharest, who has little time or patience for her schlubby father. When Winfried’s dog dies, he drops in unannounced on Ines in Romania with the hopes of reconnecting, an attempt that goes predictably awry for both anxiety-ridden daughter and obtuse father.
It’s at this point that Toni Erdmann throws you for its first big loop: Instead of going home chastened, Winfried hangs around in Bucharest on the sly and pops back into Ines’s life as as the title Toni, a half-charming lounge lizard whose disguise consists only of those terrible false teeth and an even worse wig. It’s clear Winfried has some serious stalker tendencies, but Toni Erdmann proceeds like an unpredictable farce as Ines plays the game, rebels against it, and gets to know her dad in spite of herself.
At nearly three hours, the movie’s far too long, with extended dips into the Romanian oil industry and Ines’s office life (it’s shaggier than a Bulgarian evil spirit mask, a reference you’ll only get once you’re well into hour three.) But even at that length, it manages to throw in unexpected pleasures, like an inspired comic set piece at a brunch birthday party that requires a deadpan Hüller to welcome confused guests in the nude. Ines, like her father, knows the value of a good gag.
UPDATE: Variety reports Sony Classics has acquired the U.S. rights to Toni Erdmann
