Tom Hanks has long-ago reached the point in his career where he’s free to be as choosy as he wants with his roles. This rather enviable position grants him the opportunity to play a wide variety of characters, something the veteran actor seems to relish in and embrace with each outing. While it’s hard to argue his recent spate of films aren’t nearly as memorable as his award-winning ‘90s output, Hanks nonetheless jumps feet first into every project, giving it his all and never disappointing in any kind of meaningful way.
His newest film, A Man Called Otto (a remake of the 2016 Swedish film A Man Called Ove, based on the book by Fredrik Backman), is no different in this regard. It might be on the middling side of a prolific filmography, but Hanks proves as charming as ever, even when he’s playing a aging curmudgeon with severe suicidal tendencies.
In suburban Pittsburgh, widower Otto Anderson (Hanks) spends his days trudging up and down the streets and alleys of his neighborhood looking for anything out of place, or for anyone breaking any of his rigid rules of etiquette and tidiness. Most of the infractions he finds are honest mistakes, but Otto doesn’t see it that way. To him, not closing the gate behind you, or improperly recycling your bottles and cans is tantamount to a complete breakdown of societal order.
Behind closed doors, though, Otto is miserable. His external bad manners can barely hide the pain he feels over the loss of his wife. After enduring a forced retirement from his job, he becomes increasingly despondent, and eventually makes the first of many attempts at suicide. These near shocking attempts, however, are foiled over and again by unknowing good Samaritans, including the boisterous but good-natured family who have recently moved onto the block (Mariana Treviño and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo).
From here, A Man Called Otto loses some of its steam. Too often, director Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, Stranger than Fiction) swerves the storyline away from the rather unconventional and unexpectedly dark set-up into a no-man’s-land of mawkish tropes and feel-good shenanigans. These forays into manipulative melodrama render the interesting aspects of A Man Called Otto almost completely inert. Add to that the awkward way in which Forster chooses to reveal the film’s “secrets” through a series of uncomfortably banal flashbacks, and suddenly we’re teetering on the edge of a disaster.
But, despite all of this, A Man Called Otto still manages to entertain. Unsurprisingly, Hanks carries the film with the kind of tact and warmhearted likability that few other actors possess, but his supporting cast deserve credit too. Treviño is simply radiant as Marisol, Otto’s unrestrained neighbor, while Garcia-Rulfo’s Tommy plays off her spirited energy with a fun mixture of submission and complete adoration. It’s easy to believe they care deeply about Otto and his problems because they make it easy to believe they care deeply for each other – something that isn’t easy to pull off with any amount of realism, especially with supporting roles.
Not all of its parts add up to a thoroughly successful whole, but if broken down into smaller elements and appreciated for the emotional story these parts try to tell (however manipulative they may be), A Man Called Otto works on enough levels to leave you charmed by the effort.
James is a writer, skateboarder, record collector, wrestling nerd, and tabletop gamer living with his family in Asheville, North Carolina. He is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the North Carolina Film Critics Association, and contributes to The Daily Orca, Razorcake Magazine, Mountain Xpress, and Asheville Movies.