A Man Called Otto

Grade: B+

A Man Called Otto is an American remake of the 2015 Swedish film A Man Called Ove, based on the novel of the same name. In this new incarnation, we have Tom Hanks as grumpy old man Otto. You could say I had an Otto-like attitude (an Ottotude?) about Hanks by the end of the 1990s. I thought he’d been awarded enough, I sensed an ego creeping into his performances and talk show appearances, and I was all Hanksed out. So, for me to opine that he should be nominated for at least one Oscar this year – for his work in Elvis, and maybe this too – I believe is saying something.

One of the neat aspects about the movie is the way we find out little by little, evenly and incrementally, how Otto got to be how he is – whether it’s through expository dialogue, or flashbacks that gradually catch up into the present day. Otto is a recent widower. Some of the best scenes are when he is talking to his late wife in one of his routine visits to her grave, catching her up on what’s been going on, and – invariably – what’s been pissing him off. He has lived in the same neighborhood for several decades, before much of it was built. He’s had his gas and electricity turned off, because he plans to end his life. He tries to a few times in the movie. Sweetly, the end credits feature one of those “if you or somebody you know is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, here are some websites/phone numbers you can consult” messages.

Otto is curmudgeonly, blunt, and not so much on the “please” and “thank you,” but I didn’t think he was all that unreasonable. Many of his grievances are pretty legitimate gripes. When a young couple moves in, he parallel parks for the clueless husband, lends them tools they need, and is there for their two children and one on the way. He helps, but in his gruff, Otto-like demeanor. He is everybody’s frenemy. This isn’t an overnight redemption story about a stingy miser who is mean to everyone, then suddenly the next morning is light as a feather, happy as an angel, merry as a schoolboy, and giddy as a drunken man. There is no presto-chango personality switch. He simply rekindles what was in him all along, and his neighbors have the patience of saints, and keep paying him mind. In one of the movie’s few flaws, we see the same 5 or 6 neighbors all the time, and nobody else – as if they are the only ones who live there. And they all come back in the last sequence, each with a cutesy callback to an earlier scene of theirs. “Remember me? And remember this? Wasn’t that a funny bit?” Also, I didn’t quite understand or buy what caused the big falling-out with his best friend. It seemed to be for a tame, benign reason.

With the negatives out of the way, there is so much to love about the film. Hanks finds just the right notes for his role; he plays (often underplays) everything with purpose, humility, and grace – to the degree that you can say that about Otto. One of his new neighbors (the pregnant wife) is played to perfection in a star-making, scene-stealing turn from Mariana Treviño. She is funny, touching, sassy, hilarious when she speaks Spanish at 90 miles a minute, and walks away with the movie. Is it too far-fetched to talk about a dark horse Oscar nomination here? Hanks’s real-life son, Truman Hanks, is obviously effective as young Otto. Rachel Keller, as the young version of his late wife in the flashbacks, has that Spielbergian glow of a cinematic love interest from a time gone by.

This movie will unexpectedly jerk tears, like another Fault in Our Stars or Terms of Endearment. The PG-13 rating is definitely earned, but I think many should see it, if the suicide subplot isn’t a trigger for you. A Man Called Otto arrived in theaters a few weeks too late. It’s a perfect family holiday experience.

Grade: B+