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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 19 FEBRUARY 2017 38 This Week AN old adage would have it that comedy is among the hardest things to do right, in any area of storytelling, which is made all the worse by the fact that the genre gets very little respect, compara- tively speaking. Even William Shakespere's own comedies can never hope to compete with his tragedies in our collective mem- ory – Hamlet and Romeo and Ju- liet will always be the 'time cap- sule' plays; certainly not Much Ado About Nothing and Love's Labour's Lost. To stick to literary examples, the Man Booker Prize Award go- ing to Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question in 2010 livened up this debate once again – prov- ing that comedy getting top criti- cal accolades remains something of a novelty in our culture. But we misjudge comedy at our own peril. More than just a source of easy laughs and amuse- ment made-to-measure, comedy can undercut the pretentions and foibles of life in a way that pow- erfully reveals hidden truths. Where tragedy bludgeons us with an emotional overload, comedy tickles us into acute understand- ing. Like an orgasm, laughter leads to both pleasure and vul- nerability – and the best comedy taps into this to reveal telling but not always comforting truths about ourselves and the world. Written and directed by Maren Ade and starring Peter Simonis- chek and Sandra Hüller as a fa- ther-daughter duo whose distant relationship is clumsily shoved to more snug territory by the former, Toni Erdmann – which has charmed critics worldwide and swept up a generous array of awards following its debut at the Cannes Film Festival last year – is certainly a film that takes comedy seriously. Winifred (Simonischek) is an aging, divorced hippie with a penchant for childish pranks who is eking out a miserable existence as a piano teacher. His daughter, Ines (Hüller) is a seemingly suc- cessful and certainly busy con- sultant to an oil company based in Bucharest – a job that has plucked her from her native Ger- many and which is challenging her to consolidate the efforts of the multinational company she works for, and where she's pres- sured to get their Romanian part- ners in line. Growing tired of their distant relationship following yet an- other whirlwind visit from his go-getting daughter, Winifred decides to pay a surprise visit to Ines in Bucharest. When his plan for enforced bonding fails, Winifred changes tack – and per- sona – by adopting a wig and fake teeth and introducing himself as 'Toni Erdmann' to Ines' friends and colleagues… while a horrified Ines looks on as her father threat- ens to compromise her profes- sional and social standing. While this sounds superfi- cially amusing and perhaps even creepy, what in fact develops is a touching study in second chances. For Winifred, this is something of a last-ditch effort to make up for any mistakes he may have made while raising Ines – his bumbling nature throughout suggests there may have been many – while Ines is suddenly given a chance to in- ject some humanity in her ambi- tion-driven, corporate existence. Ade's deceptively loose direc- torial style leaves plenty of room for the excellent performances by Simonischek and Hüller to shine through, building the film at a hu- mane pace that ensures its emo- tional peaks feel entirely earned, and not forced into place by a script aiming for formulaic pres- sure points. Unsurprisingly given the films runaway critical success, talk of an American remake, starring Jack Nicholson and Kristen Wiig, has already begun. Apart from the fact that Nicholson's involvement recalls a similar role – About Schmidt – and hence is yet an- other reminder of the American film industry's tendency to just re- peat what worked in the past, one is quick to conjure up images of a truncated Toni Erdmann ('Tony Hardman'?) drained of all unset- tling ambiguity and world-wea- riness in favour of sprightly farce conforming to formula. Because the original, the one we're lucky to have with us right now, is a rather long film that more than justifies its running time with a humane portrayal of the father-daughter relationship that earns its emotional troughs by avoiding formulaic resolution. Ade's film is also a triumph of the comedic idiom; mixing in pathos and irony in a way that feels like an organic extension of everyday life. Toni Erdmann is currently showing at Eden Cinemas, St Julian's IN CINEMAS TODAY Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 Fifty Shades Darker (18) 10:30, 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 Sing (U) 10:35, 13:40, 16:00, 18:20 T2 Trainspotting (18) 20:45 Gold (15) 15:55, 18:30, 21:05 The Great Wall (TBA) 10:30, 13:45, 16:00, 18:20, 20:40 Lion (PG) 10:15, 13:45, 16:15, 18:45, 21:15 La La Land (12A) 13:00, 15:45, 18:25, 21:00 Valletta Living History (U) 10:00, 10:45, 11:30, 12:15, 13:00, 13:45, 14:30, 15:15 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 Gold (15) 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 La La Land (12A) 13:30, 16:05, 18:40, 21:15 The Space Between Us (PG) 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 xXx: Return of Xander Cage (12A) 13:35, 16:05, 18:35, 21:10 Split (15) 14:00, 16:25, 18:50, 21:15, 23:40 Lion (PG) 14:00, 16:25, 18:50, 21:15, 23:40 Fifty Shades Darker (18) 14:00, 17:00, 18:00, 20:00, 20:50, 23:00 The Great Wall (12A) 14:00, 16:20, 18:40, 21:05, 23:25 Toni Erdmann (TBA) 14:00, 20:00 Sing (U) 14:00, 16:25 Rings (15) 14:10, 16:20, 18:30, 20:45, 23:00 Hacksaw Ridge (15) 14:30, 17:30, 20:30 The Young Offenders (TBA) 18:00 Sing (U) 18:45 T2 Trainspotting (18) 21:00, 23:30 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 xXx: Return of Xander Cage (12A) 10:50, 13:35, 16:10, 18:30, 21:00 Fifty Shades Darker (18) 11:00, 13:45, 16:10, 18:35, 21:00 Sing (U) 10:30, 13:35, 16:15, 18:35, 21:00 The Great Wall (12A) 11:00, 13:45, 16:10, 18:30, 20:45 Rings (15) 11:00, 14:00, 16:15, 18:30, 20:45 Hacksaw Ridge (15) 10:45, 14:00, 18:00, 20:55 Gold (15) 10:45, 13:30, 16:00, 18:35, 21:05 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ PATER FAMILIAS ★ ★ ★ ★ DADDY DEAREST ★ ★ ★ WHO'S YOUR DADDY? ★ ★ PAPA DON'T PREACH ★ PAPA WAS A ROLLING STONE FILM By Teodor Reljic TONI ERDMANN (TBA) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Peter Simonischek and Sandra Hüller play a distant-but-constricting father-daughter pair in Maren Ade's critically acclaimed comedy Toni Erdmann A sentimental education Well-earned catharsis: Sandra Hüller