VividSimon Simply Perfect

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Micransix Crappy film

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Hendrik Kleve 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.....

proud_luddite Ines Conradi (Sandra Huller) is a young German globalist consultant living in Bucharest, Romania. Her job is to assist large corporations to outsource jobs and reduce their labour costs. Winfried (Peter Simonischek) is Ines' father who is near retirement and concerned about how distant and workaholic his daughter has become. To relieve his distress, he "visits" her in Bucharest and plays pranks by showing up at Ines' business functions dressed in a bizarre wig and claiming to be "Toni Erdmann, life coach"."Toni Erdmann" is yet another film where I liked the first half better than the second. The beginning section has many genuine moments of social awkwardness and it is candid about our modern times as it exposes the foils of workaholism and the deviousness of globalization. In a few scenes, director/writer Maren Ade cleverly juxtaposes the wealth of the globalist foreigners with the poor living circumstances of average Romanians. One scene amazes in showing how the poor can still be generous despite their circumstances.The latter half is filled with buffoonery with occasional laughs (a bizarre birthday brunch was the highlight) but some of the comedy seems silly and inconsistent with the rest of the story. For example, how could "Toni" have shown up at Ines' after-work events before she does without any indication she told him where she was going to be?Huller gives a fine performance of a complex, inner-conflicted character. She portrays what could be called a villain: a despised, modern archetype - someone who advances her/his own career while casually destroying the livelihoods of others who are less well-off. Yet, she manages, with the help of Ade, to humanize the role without being apologetic for the career choice. The universal theme of "lost childhood" is also well portrayed here in Ines' relationship with Winfried. We get glimpses that she used to be as prankish with him in her early years.Overall, "Toni Erdmann" is a good film despite its flaws and its excessive length. Like the recent "Moonlight", it is a highly acclaimed film that, for me, reaches much of its potential but not all of it.

magnuslhad Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek are outstanding as estranged daughter and father who are reconciled when the father tenaciously launches a humour assault on his daughter's depressing corporate lifestyle. 'Awkward' is the adjective most often applied to the set pieces where Dad turns up in his buck-toothed disguise, an alter ego named Toni Erdmann. It's that cringey, embarrassing humour of The Office, and there are some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments. The first time Dad appears in disguise in a bar had me squealing in delight. The by now infamous party scene is also gut-achingly funny, from the moment our heroine gets stuck in her dress. But the film resists easy labelling as a comedy, as it also has something to say about finding joy is our all-too-short lives, about the attitudes of men to women in work, and about how developed nations view relations with developing countries in our globalised, mobile world. Yes, it's too long, but the director says shortening time was at the length of pace, so perhaps the slow-burn is necessary. I haven't laughed so hard at a film in a long time, and I was moved, startlingly most of all when one of the principals is not even visible. A tremendous achievement, and like nothing else around right now.

localhero83 A very creepy old man, sparse dialogue, and mainly random occurrences do not make for a good movie. I understand that the film was about loneliness and a father's concern for his daughter's workaholic life style. However, it played out in unbelievably bizarre behaviors and circumstances. The film's pace and pathos reminded me of "Lost In Translation", but without any of the latter's charm and charisma. Some of my problems with the film could be due to my lack of understanding of German perspectives and sense of humor. Perhaps the planned American remake will solve this problem for me. In the meantime, I'll go into my own thousand yard stare.