Without warning a father comes to visit his daughter abroad. He believes that she lost her humor and therefore surprises her with a rampage of jokes.
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Reviews
CinemaSerf
7
By CinemaSerf
Hmmm. I think it may be a testament to the skill of Peter Simonischek here that I didn't like this film very much, but in any case - I didn't. His daughter "Ines" (Sandra Hüller) had made a decent life for herself in the corporate world and the two have become largely estranged. He decides to try and rectify this by travelling to Bucharest where she is working with boss/lover "Gerald" (Thomas Loibl). He fancies himself as a bit of a practical joker, does "Winfried" but his attempts at humour merely irritate his daughter as they embarrass her and poke fun at the nature - sometimes the quite ruthless nature - of her work. This is just putting even greater strain on their relationship so dad comes up with an even more far-fetch solution. He invents the eponymous character who purports to be their boss's "life coach". Donning an ill-fitting suit and the most unconvincing of wigs, he proceeds to trample across her working life. She has two options - and she decides that fighting back is her best and what now ensues sees the pair spat and spar towards a denouement that I felt entirely predictable. There's no doubt that Simonischek's portrayal does get under your finger nails, but it's all just a bit too preposterous for me. He's the diametric opposite of her - his eccentricities and foibles contrasting so starkly with her career-minded focus that it all just came across as overly and sometimes quite cringe-makingly contrived. For some reason, she spends a fair chunk of the latter stages of the film naked whilst he's in gorilla suit. Surreal? Yes - but what's the point? It isn't funny and for her character to have achieved half of what she is portrayed to have done here, she'd have shown him the door (or a police car) ages earlier in the proceedings. Sometimes you have to be on the right wavelength to appreciate something quite this eclectic - but I wasn't on auteur Maren Ade's for this. It does show that Hüller has many strings to her bow, though - there's little she can't turn her hand to and this is just about worth watching to see that skill in action.
