Sunday, December 25, 2016

Too long and unnecessarily crude, "Toni Erdmann" is a mess



I can't think of too many movies in recent years - or ever, for that matter - that were as pointlessly long as Toni Erdmann.  At one-hundred and sixty two minutes, it has a script that would have been tolerable and interesting if it was only a third of that length, and not a second longer.  Peter Simonischek plays Winfried, an old goofball whose main interests are pranks and jokes, and whose daughter Ines (Sandra Hüller), a successful business consultant, is often embarrassed by him in public.  The film's tone is, I would say, dramatically comedic, and this makes the existence of a strangely crude and out of place scene in a hotel room between Ines and her lover that much weirder (I wish they'd leave cum eating scenes for the porn industry).  Winfried puts on a wig and pretends to be a rich ambassador to his daughter's girlfriends; he grazes cheese on his head in public; he even wears a large hair suit to Ines' all-nude cocktail party (awkward).  He is the anti-Borat: think of that iconic Sasha Baron Cohen character, but take away the laughs.  Yup, exactly like that.  For nearly three hours.  How in the world did this movie get 93% on Rotten Tomatoes is beyond me.  I suppose some things just defy logic.
D

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