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In Marc Forster ’s genial, earnest yet unremarkable dramedy “A Man Called Otto,” the titular character Otto can’t pick his daily battles even if his life depended on it. Living in an unfussy suburban neighborhood of identical row houses somewhere in the Midwest, the aging man gets easily annoyed by every little misstep of a stranger. And his protests are so pronounced that they even rival Larry David ’s in an average episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Portrayed by the beloved Tom Hanks in an indistinct performance that splits the difference between quirky and grounded, Otto is often right about his grievances, to his credit. Why should he pay for six feet of rope and waste a few extra cents, for instance, when he bought just a little over five? Why shouldn’t he warn inconsiderate drivers who often block garage doors or entitled neighbors who can’t as much as remember to close a gate and respect basic rules about trash disposal? Or pick up a fuss when the soulless real estate guys from the fictional and hilariously named “Dye & Merica” show up to sabotage the community’s peace?

Then again, not everything is as awful as Otto makes them out to be. And he could perhaps afford to have some manners himself, especially when a new, very pregnant neighbor drops by with a bowl of home-cooked meal as a courtesy.

If you’ve already seen 2015’s Oscar-nominated Swedish hit “ A Man Called Ove ” by Hannes Holm , a film that is not any better or worse than this middle-of-the-road American remake (yes, not all originals are automatically superior), you’ll know that Otto hasn’t always been this insufferable. In small doses of syrupy and visually overworked flashbacks, Forster and agile screenwriter David Magee show us that he was socially awkward even from his young days, but at least nice and approachable. With a squarely unstylish side-part haircut that aptly gives out a “nice but unworldly guy” vibe, young Otto (played by the star’s own son, Truman Hanks) had an interest in engineering, in figuring out how things work. His life apparently changed when he accidentally met the dreamy Sonya ( Rachel Keller ), who later on became his wife and passed away recently.

As was the case in “Ove,” Otto can’t wait to join his wife on the other side, but his frequent suicide attempts get interrupted in episodes that are sometimes awkwardly funny, and other times, just plain awkward. The chief interrupters of our get-off-my-lawn guy are the abovementioned new neighbors: the happily married-with-kids couple Marisol (a bubbly and scene-stealing Mariana Treviño , the absolute best thing about the film) and Tommy (Manuel Garcia-Ruflo), who often ask little favors from the grumpy Otto. There are also others in the neighborhood, like a kindly transgender teenager Malcolm (Mack Bayda) thrown out of his house by his dad, the fitness-obsessed Jimmy ( Cameron Britton ), Otto’s old friend Rueben ( Peter Lawson Jones), and his wife Anita (Juanita Jennings), who are no longer on cordial terms with Otto. And let’s not forget a stray cat that no one seems to know what to do with for a while.

The mystery is that none of the supporting personalities in this story can take a hint about Otto, at least not well into the film’s second act. Instead, all the characters collectively treat Otto with patience and acceptance, as if he isn’t being willfully rude to them every chance he gets. For example, it’s anyone’s guess why Otto’s work colleagues bother to throw him a retirement party when it will surely go unappreciated or why Marisol continuously insists on trying to bring out the good side of him when Otto offensively shuts down every one of her genuine attempts.

Still, the story manages to land some charms when Otto finally lets his guard down and starts making all the expected amends, while suffering a rare heart condition on the side. First, he becomes a local hero when he unwittingly saves someone’s life in front of a group of unhelpful people too preoccupied with their phones. Later on, he racks up additional goodwill when he takes Malcolm in and builds a slow yet steady friendship with Marisol, a rewarding storyline in an otherwise predictable tale.

But the biggest win of Forster’s adaptation is its worthwhile message about the small wins of everyday people who operate as a functioning and harmonious community against the evils of faceless corporations. “A Man Called Otto” isn’t exactly as philosophical as “ About Schmidt ” or as socially conscious as “ I, Daniel Blake ,” two films that occasionally hit similar notes. But it’s nevertheless a wholesome crowd-pleaser for your next family gathering.

In limited release now, wide on January 13th.

Tomris Laffly

Tomris Laffly is a freelance film writer and critic based in New York. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), she regularly contributes to RogerEbert.com , Variety and Time Out New York, with bylines in Filmmaker Magazine, Film Journal International, Vulture, The Playlist and The Wrap, among other outlets.

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A Man Called Otto (2022)

Rated PG-13

126 minutes

Tom Hanks as Otto Anderson

Mariana Treviño as Marisol

Kailey Hyman as Barb

Rachel Keller

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo

Cameron Britton

Mike Birbiglia

Elle Chapman as Sarah

Marc Forster
David Magee
Matt Chesse

Director of Photography

Matthias Koenigswieser
Fredrik Backman

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‘A Man Called Otto’ Review: Tom Hanks Learns Life Lessons

Going against nice-guy type (at first), the star plays a misanthrope who’s pulled into caring for a neighboring family in need.

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Tom Hanks in a blue jacket sitting with a cat.

By Glenn Kenny

In 2016, reviewing the film “A Man Called Ove” for this newspaper, I mused: “Sweden’s official entry for a best foreign-language film at the Academy Awards proves that Swedish pictures can be just as sentimental and conventionally heartwarming as Hollywood ones.”

That movie, based on a best-selling Swedish novel, is about a thoroughgoing grump who becomes suicidal after the death of his wife, until interactions with new neighbors soften his heart. One supposes an American remake was inevitable, and here it is, directed by Marc Forster and starring Tom Hanks, with the main character renamed Otto.

Usually U.S. remakes of foreign films tend to homogenize the source material. But “A Man Called Otto” is not only more bloated than the Swedish film, it’s more outré, in a way that’s hard to pin down.

Forster handles the flashback of the back story (in which the star’s son, Truman Hanks, plays a younger Otto) in gauzy-arty fashion. When the older Otto — Hanks reaches back to his excellent work in “Catch Me If You Can” to nail down the man’s overarching irritability — contemplates his happy marriage, his mind always goes back to its earliest times. It’s curious, until the film reveals why it has avoided more recent memories, but by then the omission feels like a withholding cheat.

Otherwise, obviousness rules the day here. When Otto visits an incapacitated former friend, the soundtrack spins Kenny Dorham’s version of the jazz chestnut “Old Folks.” Which is always nice to hear, admittedly. Later, a teenager initially upbraided by Otto tells him that Otto’s wife, who had been a schoolteacher, “was the only person who didn’t treat me like a freak, because I’m transgender.” As the television icon Marcia Brady once put it, “Oh my nose!”

A Man Called Otto Rated PG-13 for themes and language. Running time: 2 hours 6 minutes. In theaters.

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A Man Called Otto Reviews

A Man Called Otto is not a waste of time by any stretch, but it also does not demand your attention in any strong measure.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Feb 28, 2024

I did occasionally find it just a bit too pat and too contrived to melt my more critical lens entirely, but it won me over with its nicely handled comedic touches, lovely performances, and both its clear-eyed positivity and its shamelessly huge heart.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 31, 2023

If not for Tom Hanks, "A Man Called Otto" might be a boring tale of one grumpy man's perseverance against the elements trying to take him down. But it's because of Hanks that the film succeeds.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

The drama movie is touching but never truly remarkable.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 25, 2023

Despite having a somewhat interesting start with the presence of Hanks as the unfriendly neighbor, it is a remake that loses the desired dramatic effect by sometimes going down the route of calculated poignancy. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | May 19, 2023

Tom Hanks was an absolute blast to watch on screen, and his interaction with his co-stars were some of my favorite scenes in the movie. He commanded the screen with his betrayal of Otto.

Full Review | Apr 29, 2023

It proves again, the everyman of the movies, can play any mood or soul. The movie is patient, and a special shoutout to Mariana Trevino for taking a slightly underwritten role and giving it depth.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Apr 27, 2023

Subtle, sincerely redemptive comedic drama...Tom Hanks delivers a carefully modulated, understated performance, as does his 'real-life' son Truman, but the script tends to be overly melodramatic.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 6, 2023

The director is Marc Forster of Monster's Ball. For sure, his saccharine movie is not hard to like, if only because he is a pro at manipulating heartstrings and Hanks cannot help but be affable, however ill-suited for his role here.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 23, 2023

Tom Hanks gets in touch with his inner Larry David as the curmudgeonly sexegenarian at the heart of Marc Forster’s lukewarm English-language remake of Hannes Holm’s Oscar-nominated “A Man Called Ova.”

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Mar 13, 2023

With Hanks as its star, Marc Forster’s safe Hollywood remake is all the more predictable.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 2, 2023

A Man Called Otto is mechanically engineered for maximum lachrymosal extraction.

Full Review | Feb 28, 2023

Tom Hanks is trying to channel his inner Clint Eastwood for this US adaptation of Fredrik Bachman’s Swedish best-seller - the problem is, he simply isn’t grouchy enough

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 26, 2023

A film that gets by thanks to Hanks' unwavering watchability though there's not a beat or a revelation we haven't seen before and taking its biggest emotional cue directly from She's Having a Baby is an annoyingly misguided choice.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 16, 2023

This slice of superior schmaltz has Tom Hanks as a fastidious late-middle-aged grump who hates everyone, from overcharging shop assistants to neighbours who put their recycling in the wrong bin.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 15, 2023

Tom Hanks does his best to look mean, but his inherent affability never fails to shine through. Otto discovers to his disgust that there is no avoiding mushiness.

Full Review | Feb 11, 2023

With a terrific supporting cast – Mariana Trevino is the MVP of this journey, and she’s a force of nature as the kind neighbor Marisol. Without her as a counterpart, this would be a difficult, one-note story.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Feb 3, 2023

It’s the kind of schmaltzy, big performance studio drama that used to get a billion Oscar nominations, and darn it, I kind of miss those being in vogue.

Full Review | Feb 2, 2023

A sweet story of the power of community to bring someone back from the brink of suicide. A film like this depends on the performances - and here there are some weak links and some standout performances.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 1, 2023

A predictable tear-jerker made no less enjoyable or heartfelt by its predictability.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 31, 2023

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‘a man called otto’ review: tom hanks in a predictable but touching portrait of grief and resilience.

The Oscar winner plays the title role in this remake of the hit Swedish film about a curmudgeonly widower learning to embrace life again.

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A Man Called Otto (2022)

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A Man Called Otto Review

Tom hanks gets old and cranky in a heart-wrenching tale of loss and aging..

A Man Called Otto hits U.S. theaters on Jan. 13, 2023.

There’s no getting around it; Otto (Tom Hanks) is old. We first meet him at a local DIY store attempting to buy some rope, with hilariously cranky results. Imagine a curmudgeonly, elderly man refusing to get with the times and taking it out on everyone around him. A Man Called Otto is exactly that… at least, at first. But you’ll soon find that it’s actually a film that explores the bleak existence of an elderly man who’s stuck in limbo – a life after life where he’s lost his place in the world. Thankfully, it’s not too long before he finds a new one. While it’s a perfectly heart-wrenching set-up, it doesn’t bring much else to the table, leaning on old tropes and a simple plot to tell a just-okay story about Hanks’ old grouch.

When the Mendes family moves in across the street, Marisol (Mariana Treviño), her husband Tommy (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and their two daughters throw Otto’s life into disarray. They’re the annoyingly perky neighbors who always want to borrow a wrench or need help with a window. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out what happens next, as director Marc Forster uses just about every cliché in the book to hammer home Otto’s changing outlook on life.

But let’s back up for a moment. In between tubs of cookies and requests for babysitting, we learn that Otto is desperately sad. He lost his wife, Sonya (Rachel Keller), less than a year ago, and he’s a shadow of the man he once was, who we learn about through a liberal helping of flashbacks. In some ways, it’s easy to compare A Man Called Otto to one of Hanks’ more famous films – it’s basically the anti-Forrest Gump.

Otto is definitely on the opposite end of the happiness spectrum, but it’s more than that. A Man Called Otto highlights all the greatest hits of Otto’s life, but it starts at the opposite end of a life lived. Through flashbacks, we learn why Otto is the way he is, as well as find out more about the love of his life… and exactly why she meant so much to him.

What's Tom Hanks' best movie?

The trouble is, there’s just nothing truly unique going on here. That’s not to say A Man Called Otto isn’t a decent enough film – it tugs at the heartstrings in all the right places, and you’ll be hard-pressed to walk out of the theater with dry eyes by the end. But it’s not exactly full of twists and turns; quite the opposite. The final act is telegraphed from a million miles away, and it all feels perhaps a bit too familiar.

Based on the New York Times best-seller, A Man Called Otto does everything you expect… but little else. Forster does his best to inject some life into proceedings in the form of some curiously eccentric neighbors. Unfortunately, the rather twee elements of finding a new family and the excruciatingly labored metaphors laced liberally throughout distract from any originality you might find. There are even scenes of the literal changing of the seasons, to add to some of the not-so-subtle metaphors. Yeah.

Thankfully, Hanks is in typically good form as Otto, lending an air of gravitas to what could be a startlingly pedestrian role. Instead, Hanks walks a fine line between loveable grouch and eccentric geriatric, with plenty of his trademark heart thrown in for good measure. A debut performance from his son, Truman Hanks, is less impressive. Not that there’s anything wrong with his acting, but Truman suffers from having little to work with – much of his role revolves around cooing over the love of young Otto’s life, making doe-eyes at the pretty girl and following her, unerringly, wherever she may go. Not exactly an actor’s wildest dream.

Still, he proves himself to be adequate, at least… and with some stirring performances from Otto’s neighbors, the cast carries this decidedly unremarkable story on its capable shoulders. Throw in some truly funny moments in its unexpectedly witty script, and there’s just enough to make the film worth watching.

The Best Movie of 2022

A Man Called Otto is ultimately a formulaic comedy-drama that leans far too much on tried and tested cliches. A charismatic central performance from Hanks elevates the movie, albeit slightly, with standout performances from Mariana Treviño and Cameron Britton. A tight script punctuates Otto’s misery with some truly memorable comic moments, and Forster wrangles the potentially miserable tale into something far more uplifting. A Man Called Otto is often gut-wrenching and sometimes even charming, but it just fails to bring much new to the table. If you can enjoy it for what it is, you’ll be rewarded with a sweet tale of an old man losing his place in the world only to find an entirely new one.

A Man Called Otto is a benign comedy-drama that peppers a heart-wrenching story with plenty of eye-rolling jokes to distract you from its perfectly pedestrian plot. A tear-jerking performance from Tom Hanks shows a certain subtlety you won’t find in its storyline, while Hanks’ son Truman fills in the gaps with some adequate flashbacks in a reverse-Forrest Gump. You’ll struggle to escape from the theater with dry eyes, but director Marc Forster leans on familiar tropes and cliches to amp up the feels – and it might not work on everyone. A Man Called Otto is good enough to pass a quiet holiday weekend, but it fails to bring much else to the table.

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It says something about the current state of studio filmmaking in Hollywood that all the things that make “A Man Called Otto” stand out are things that really should make it commonplace. The film is made with a level of craft and simple competence that has become shockingly rare. A genuine movie star is allowed to radiate charisma and charm, and all the performances have character nuance and emotional depth.

These should be the basic building blocks of Hollywood moviemaking and yet here we are, with “A Man Called Otto” feeling special for being a winsome dramedy with some effective moments of tearjerking tenderness. It’s not so much a matter of they don’t make them like this anymore as they should be making them like this all the time.

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Directed by Marc Forster, the film is based on the 2012 novel “A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman, which became an international bestseller and previously was adapted into a 2016 Swedish film that earned two Oscar nominations. From a screenplay by David Magee, who this year also wrote the adapted screenplays for “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and “The School for Good and Evil,” the new film finds enough ways to update the core material to keep it fresh.

As the film opens, Otto (Tom Hanks) is buying a few bits and pieces at a hardware store and then gets into an argument with a clerk about whether he is being overcharged by a few cents for a length of rope. Once he is back at his modest, meticulously kept row house, it is revealed that Otto plans to kill himself, but life keeps getting in the way.

There are his new neighbors, Marisol and Tommy (Mariana Treviño and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), a young couple with two small children and expecting another. The trans kid who delivers the newspapers was a student of Otto’s deceased wife, a teacher. Otto also finds himself reconnecting with a pair of longtime neighbors with whom he had a falling-out. Even a self-styled “social media journalist” won’t leave him alone after Otto, who had intended to throw himself onto the tracks, saves a man from being struck by a train.

A man and two children look skeptically at a colorfully dressed clown.

Otto seems at first to be a rigid, stuck-in-his-ways old man similar to the type Clint Eastwood has played recently in films such as “Gran Torino,” “The Mule” and “Cry Macho,” men who must learn to overcome their prejudices. Otto, largely because of circumstances revealed around his late wife (played in flashbacks by Rachel Keller), is more readily open-minded and open-hearted than those Eastwood characters. He is nevertheless endlessly aggravated by others for a perceived lack of knowledge or abilities.

The film is an odd companion to Hanks’ recent, more willfully weird turn as Colonel Tom Parker in “Elvis,” which found him working against an accent and prosthetics and a fanciful villainous characterization. His role in “Otto” plays to Hanks’ more obvious strengths, his essential affability even when he is presenting a gruff, unyielding exterior. The sweet heart of the character is never too far below the surface.

“A Man Called Otto” is also something of a family affair, with Rita Wilson, Hanks’ wife, as one of the producers and co-writing and performing the song “Til You’re Home.” In flashback scenes, young Otto is played by one of Hanks’ and Wilson’s children, Truman Hanks. And in one of the film’s slyer jokes, the hip-hop song “White Boy Summer” by their son Chet Hanks is used to personify a certain kind of clueless obliviousness in others.

The real standout in the supporting cast is Treviño, a comedy star in her native Mexico who brings real energy and feeling to her role as one of Otto’s new neighbors. She barges into Otto’s orderly life and brings a bit of chaos with her, inserting a much-needed liveliness into the movie as well. Mike Birbiglia is also well cast playing against type as a sleazy real estate developer.

It is not meant as faint praise to say that “A Man Called Otto” is nice. The film has an easygoing, please-like-me quality that somehow never comes off as desperate but instead gives it a reassuring quality, like a mug of warm tea. It’s borderline corny, but sometimes corny can mean unselfconscious, willing to be unguarded in its sincerity. The tender message of hopefulness and spiritual renewal is a welcome tonic as the year comes to a close.

'A Man Called Otto'

Rated: PG-13 for mature thematic material involving suicide attempts, and language. Running time: 2 hours, 6 minutes Playing: Starts Dec. 30, AMC the Grove, Los Angeles; AMC Century City

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Rebecca ferguson says co-stars called after screaming claims: “if you’re a good person, then don’t worry about it”, ‘a man called otto’ review: tom hanks, mariana trevino & a cat make this american remake irresistible.

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Screenwriter David Magee and director Marc Forster have not altered the basic plot for this Pittsburgh-set remake titled A Man Called Otto , but unlike another Pittsburgh-set Hanks movie, 2019’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, which earned Hanks a Supporting Oscar nomination as the gentle Mister Rogers, this one gives its star to operate at full-crank levels until we inevitably see his transformation into a man with a very big heart. We know it is coming, and that is what makes the familiarity of this tale work so well. It is comforting, and Hanks navigates it with the expert skill you would expect. It is nice to see him doing comedy again as well. It has been awhile, but this earns its laughs and smiles in completely believable ways, never forced, thank God.

Forster and Magee also use flashbacks of the younger Otto (played by Hanks’ real-life youngest son and uncanny lookalike Truman Hanks) and Sonya (Rachel Keller) as they meet, marry, endure tragedy and share a life. The flashbacks are not intrusive and really add to our understanding of just who Otto was, and perhaps why he became the way he is today. Both young stars are well cast in a movie that knows exactly what it is doing in order to win our hearts. Also in the cast is Mike Birbiglia as a corporate real estate company rep who plays the “villain” of sorts, but his character is pretty one-dimensional.

Matthias Koenigswieser’s fine cinematography fulfills the changing needs of the film’s visual style perfectly, Barbara Ling’s production design serves the story well, and there is a lovely score to match by Thomas Newman. A song by Rita Wilson and David Hodges, “Til You’re Home,” is a perfect touch at the end and already has been Oscar-shortlisted .

The reason this American remake is so vital, at least to me, is that it ultimately is a story of human connection coming at a time of unprecedented divisiveness and heartlessness in an America that seems to have truly lost its way. This is somewhat a return to a bit of old-style Frank Capra spirit in a social media age, and a family film that serves a purpose to remind us the good within us, no matter how deep down you have to dig.

Producers are Hanks, Wilson, Gary Goetzman and the Swedish film’s original producer Fredrick Wikstrom Nicastro. Sony Pictures opens the Columbia release Friday in a limited LA/NY exclusive run before going wide on January 13.

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‘A Man Called Otto’ Review: Tom Hanks Plays a Florid Grump

Hanks is well-cast as a misanthropic loner, but the film lacks the courage of his caustic conviction.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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(l to r) Luna (Christiana Montoya), Abbie (Alessandra Perez), and Otto (Tom Hanks) are entertained by a clown as they wait in Columbia Pictures A MAN CALLED OTTO. Photo by: Niko Tavernise

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Hanks harumphs with an irresistible self-justifying logic, and the clueless response on the part of the store’s millennial clerks, who are doing all they can to accommodate his tantrum, is the icing on the high-dudgeon cake. The secret weapon of a scene like this one is that even though Otto is overreacting like a jerk, in his petty and snappish way he’s sort of right. It should bother people, a little bit, that a corporation designs it so you can’t just buy five feet of rope.

But David Magee, who wrote the script of “A Man Called Otto” (inspired by the 2015 Swedish film “A Man Called Ove”), and Marc Forster, who directed it, don’t have anything that witty in mind. The film starts off rooted in the real world but turns into a soft-headed “redemptive” fairy tale. Everything gets turned up a notch; even the potentially uproarious scene of Otto dishing out abuse to a hospital clown withers in the clown’s telegraphed overreaction. The movie is trying so hard to be a crowd-pleaser, in its reach-for-the-synthetic, sitcom-meets-Hallmark heart, that it will likely end up pleasing very few. It’s the definition of a movie that Tom Hanks deserved better than.

Otto, in case you were wondering, plans to use that five feet of rope to kill himself. He’s still reeling from the recent death of his wife, and he intends to hang himself in his living room (from a hole he punches into the ceiling — a doomed plan or what?). I’ve never been crazy about botched-suicide comedy, going back to the prelude sequence of “Harold and Maude” (sorry, not a fan of that calculated cult ’70s quirkfest). The reason isn’t that I think it’s so scandalous but that it’s actually, under the surface, quite sentimental. The joke is always the same: that the suicides fail because the person… really wants to live . In this case, the idea that Hanks’ Otto has given up on life is a conceit the audience scarcely pretends to buy.

Otto occupies a condo in the same soothing blue prefab row-house development he has lived in ever since he married Sonya (Rachel Keller), the true love he first spotted on a Philadelphia train platform — she dropped her book! He picked it up and ran after her! All the way to the other side of the platform! — when he was a young man.

The film is threaded with flashbacks to their relationship, and they’re built on the potentially effective stunt casting of Truman Hanks, Hanks’s 27-year-old son, as the younger Otto, who came to Philly to enlist in the military, which turned into a doomed mission. Hanks’ acerbic actor son Colin has often seemed a chip off the old block, but Truman Hanks comes off as notably sweeter, softer, and more benign than his dad. In almost any movie you’d have to squint to buy him as the young Tom Hanks, but in this movie, where we have to believe that this angelic nerd evolves into a sharp-tongued malcontent, it’s far too jarring a leap.

In case all those don’t get to you, the movie makes a point of throwing in a transgender former student of Sonya’s, who’s there to demonstrate that Otto may grouse at the world but that he sees it entirely without prejudice. He’s a hater with a heart of gold. “A Man Called Otto” wants to lift our spirits, but the trouble with it is that the nicer Otto gets, the more naggingly fake the movie becomes. It should have been called “Florid-est Grump.”

Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, Dec. 16, 2022. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 126 MIN.

Production: A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Columbia Pictures, Stage 6 Films, SF Productions, Play-Tone production. Producers: Fredrik Wikström Nicastro, Rita Wilson, Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman. Executive producers: Marc Forster, Renée Wolfe, Louise Rosner, David Magee, Michael Porseryd, Tim King, Sudie Smyth, Steven Shareshian, Celia Costas, Neda Backman, Tor Jonasson.
Crew: Director: Marc Forster. Screenplay: David Magee. Camera: Mathuas Koenigswieser. Editor: Matt Chessé. Music: Thomas Newman.
With: Tom Hanks, Mariana Treviño, Rachel Keller, Truman Hanks, Mike Birbiglia, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo.

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Good neighbours … Mariana Treviño and Tom Hanks in A Man Called Otto.

A Man Called Otto review – Tom Hanks goes grumpy in remake of quirky Swedish yarn

Neither the comedy nor the inherently lovable Hanks are dark enough to bring this remake of an odd redemption story to life

S even years ago, a frankly peculiar, quirky dramedy-heartwarmer from Sweden appeared: A Man Called Ove , based on the bestselling novel by Fredrik Backman. It was about a grumpy old widower who snaps at everyone on his street – officiously enforcing the Neighbourhood-Watch-type rules about parking and recycling – and keeps on trying to take his own life. These attempts are continually thwarted when he spots some local outside his house breaking some bylaw and Ove can’t resist rushing out to remonstrate. But a nerdy, sweet-natured young couple move in next door and insist on befriending Ove, and their artless friendship relieves Ove’s repressed sadness and affords him redemption. Ove was played in the original by Rolf Lassgård (Wallander on Swedish TV) and now by Tom Hanks – renamed Otto – in this Hollywood remake from screenwriter David Magee and director Marc Forster. The goofy-friendly new neighbours are played by Mariana Treviño and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo.

Hanks’s performance amplifies and colourises the original curmudgeon, and his star-quality soups up the drama and makes a clearer sense of the backstory, yet the very fact of it being Hanks means that we never for a moment believe that he really is going to be that nasty (or that unhappy) for long. Soon, the lovable Hanks will surely reappear, and it duly does as the sad story of his late wife emerges in sucrose flashback – although she is always a bland cipher, not a convincing person. Finally, of course, Otto is going to be absolutely adorable. With his fierce short haircut and blank, open face he looks very familiar. Not grump, but Gump.

But just as with the original, the real problems come with those wacky unsuccessful attempts to kill himself; they represent the same jarring and baffling tonal misjudgment. Newspapers are very restricted about what they can describe on this subject; not so the cinema, which is (rightly) afforded artistic freedom. But the scenes with Hanks buying the means from a hardware store, arguing about the change with the manager, then unhilariously having to abandon his plan in order to tell someone off … it’s not serious enough to do justice to the subject, not dark enough for scabrous black comedy, or funny enough for comedy of any sort, being weirdly sentimental from the outset.

Otherwise, the movie follows the form of the original pretty faithfully, although the gay teenage boy that Ove helps in the first film is now trans. Hanks carries the film with his personality and his easy address to the camera, but this oddity of a film never quite comes to life.

A Man Called Otto is released on 25 December in the US, on 1 January in Australia and on 6 January in the UK.

Comedy films
Drama films
Marc Forster
Film adaptations

A Man Called Otto Review: A Charming Film Held Back By Odd Tonal Decisions

Warning: This review contains spoilers for "A Man Called Otto," as well as sensitive, potentially triggering content.

In Tom Hanks' wildly varied film career, he's played everything from a lawyer dying of AIDS ("Philadelphia") to a shopkeeper in love ("Sleepless In Seattle") to an unlikely influencer of history ("Forrest Gump"). He's even starred in a very informal plane crash trilogy, as a pilot stuck landing a crashing plane ("Sully"), a man stuck on an island after a plane crash ("Cast Away"), and a man stuck in an airport after a plane landing ("The Terminal"). In "A Man Called Otto," based on the 2012 Fredrik Backman novel "A Man Called Ove" and the 2015 Swedish film of that same title, Tom Hanks takes on his least characteristic role yet: that of a grumpy old widower.

It's an interesting project to save the least, given its dedicated attempt to land charming, family-friendly vibes against a narrative that relies on a widower fed up with living without his beloved Sonya (Rachel Keller). It joins the company of Redeemed Cranky Old Men films, and one can't help but be continually reminded of, say, "As Good As It Gets" and "Gran Torino" as it proceeds. What distinguishes this film from those is the peculiarity of Otto's unique challenge, one that's so core to its story that this review will have to get into spoiler territory to discuss it.

Fair warning ahead, we're going to be discussing both MAJOR SPOILERS and an extremely sensitive topic.

Otto, we come to find out, is so distraught over his wife's death that he aims to join her in the afterlife by committing suicide. Distraught, suicidal commitment has been well handled before in films that don't aim for a tragic tone, like Frank Capra's holiday classic "It's A Wonderful Life" and Billy Wilder's "The Apartment." "A Man Called Otto" attempts to join that list, with talented performers and a number of enjoyable moments, but its woefully uneven tone and odd handling of such a serious issue keep it from meeting its potential.

A serious topic anchored by strong performances

"A Man Called Otto" begins with a man buying rope in a hardware store. That man is widowed retiree Otto (Tom Hanks), and he is particular about both his rope length and, well, everything else — he separates the trash and recyclables, enforces parking rules, and keeps the i's dotted and the t's crossed in his nice but gentrifying neighborhood. And Otto does this all with a frown on his face. Otto is the neighborhood grump, and after his wife Sonya's death he largely keeps to himself ... at least until new neighbor Marisol (an electric Mariana Treviño) and her charming family move in and need a little help. It's the first in a series of interruptions that peel off Otto's prickly edges and allow him to grow and let the love in, finding connection in the power of community.

Unfortunately, Much of the film is a series of interruptions. Otto tries a method of suicide, fails or is interrupted by a needy neighbor, he begrudgingly helps said neighbor, and so on, as his grieving heart is progressively warmed by Marisol and co., a mangy cat he begrudgingly takes in, and others in his little gentrifying neighborhood. Where "Otto" most excels is in its performances. Tom Hanks has appropriate complexity as the widowed curmudgeon, boasting considerably strong emotional moments alongside showcasing the comedic chops he used more heavily in his early career. Some of his strongest performances are interrupted by oddly spliced-in and transitioned memories, but he still lands them well enough that his Otto is routinely enjoyable to watch.

The surrounding cast here largely also do a wonderful job with their respective roles. Mariana Treviño gives an exceptional performance as Marisol, full of heart and fire and tremendous on-screen charisma. Rachel Keller brings a lot of warmth and humanity to her all-too-brief scenes as the younger version of Otto's wife ... though one can't help but wonder why Otto's remembrances of his beloved wife never extend beyond her early days. One would think he'd remember more than a brief, years-ago span in the life of a woman he loved so much he'd die to join, but alas ... evidently not. It's a curious omission to say the least. Together the performances drive a movie full of moments that are enjoyable when abstracted from their context. It's engaging to watch these players interact and to see Otto's transition over the movie's runtime.

A decent movie hampered by tonal inconsistencies

Beyond the performances, a lot of other elements work in how the tale of "A Man Called Otto" is told. A number of comedic moments work well, driven largely by Hanks' irascible Otto being ornery in the moment. A good part of it is a comedy of little errors, where his low tolerance for things like parking violations and interruption are played for laughs, and these scenes typically work well. Also successfully played for laughs are a number of moments where Otto's ultimate good nature forces him time and again to help a neighbor or former friend despite his desire to be left alone ... a sort of aged Mad Max traversing the desert of his lonely life until he's begrudgingly forced to be something beyond a jerk. Largely these moments land, and it's this journey of accidental reconnections that more often than not bring home an engaging story about a heartbroken man reclaimed through the power of community.

That said, there are a number of elements and moments that don't quite fit in "A Man Called Otto." Plenty of individual jokes land, scenes work, but one can't help but find a tonal dissonance between the subject matter and its treatment. At its core, it's a film about a distraught man who wants to commit suicide after the death of his beloved wife until he finds a new makeshift family. Throughout the film he repeatedly tries new ways to kill himself, each time getting ironically interrupted by this or that neighborly need or accident.

When one thinks about it, this material is heavy. One would expect a drama or black comedy, but director Marc Forster pulls out all the stops to maintain a superficially family-friendly, heartwarming tone. Attempts are played for laughs as the narrative winds its way from one attempt to another, sandwiched around enough warm moments and cutesy interludes that the audience can forget how dark the material is. It feels odd each time we watch a distraught man's attempted suicide be played off for a quirky laugh, judo'ed into a heartwarming tale of a man's social re-creation. It makes for a confusing tonal mishmash, and it isn't until Otto's abrupt admission at the end that the movie ever seems to take that element of the story seriously.

Adding to these issues is a film score that rarely works or matches the scene appropriately. At times, it feels like music that belongs in a television movie rather than in the newest outing of a seasoned performer like Hanks. Altogether, the score and original songs rarely fit the film and contribute to its relative inability to land on a coherent feeling or balance its humorous and dramatic emotional pulls. "A Man Called Otto" has its moments, both humorous and heartwarming, and it works better than it should due to the strength of its performances. Unfortunately, it's also plagued by choices that blunt its overall coherence, seeming like Forster wanted to make an entirely different kind of film than the material dictated.

/Film Rating: 7 out of 10

(If you or a loved one are a survivor of suicide, or have had suicidal ideations of any kind, please consider reaching out to a medical professional, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.)

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A man called otto, common sense media reviewers.

Neighborly love warms comedy about suicidal curmudgeon.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

While movie deals with suicidal ideation and suici

Marisol, an immigrant and mother, is persistent, c

Positive characters who are diverse in terms of ag

Several suicide attempts (hanging, carbon monoxide

A married couple's love story is told from beginni

Strong language includes "bastard," "crap," "godda

Recurring joke about men who identify with certain

Positive Messages

While movie deals with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, ultimate message is that life has more to offer than we may think -- we just need to hang in there and be open to what it brings us. Cranky people likely have a painful reason behind their rude behavior. Themes of love, loss, compassion, finding family in unexpected places.

Positive Role Models

Marisol, an immigrant and mother, is persistent, caring, unapologetically herself. Neighbors, co-workers, and people Otto comes into contact with are remarkably patient and cheery despite his rude behavior.

Diverse Representations

Positive characters who are diverse in terms of age, gender, race, disability, and economics. Focus on issues related to aging, including forced retirement, loss, and health problems. Title character, director, and writer are all White men, but a Latino family is the heart of the film; the matriarch is a Mexican immigrant (played by Mexican actor Mariana Treviño) who frequently speaks in unsubtitled Spanish. Significant supporting characters with disabilities. Transgender character shares his struggle with family acceptance.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Several suicide attempts (hanging, carbon monoxide poisoning, shooting, train) that fail in ways that are depicted as humorous; ultimately, the character comes to understand that life has much to offer him, and he has much to offer others. Vehicular accident with bodies strewn about; strong emotional consequences. Hostile but humorous behavior from main character toward small animals. Peril when a person falls onto railroad tracks. Road rage incident: driver pulled out of vehicle.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A married couple's love story is told from beginning to end in flashbacks. Kissing.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Strong language includes "bastard," "crap," "goddamn," "pr--ks," "s--t," "son of a bitch," "suck," and "what the hell." Cranky character calls people "idiots" and calls the neighborhood stray "stupid cat."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Recurring joke about men who identify with certain car brands, so vehicles are highlighted with close-ups on the ornament or logo.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Tom Hanks produced and stars in A Man Called Otto, an ultimately life-affirming dramedy that deals frankly with suicidal ideation. Adapted from Fredrik Backman's bestselling book and the Academy Award-nominated 2015 Swedish film A Man Called Ove , it centers on a man named Otto (Hanks), the epitome of the cranky "get off my lawn" type, who wants to end his life as a matter of efficiency. The movie presents a series of humorously interrupted attempts at his death via suicide (using a rope, asphyxiation, a gun, etc.), all of which lead to the point at which Otto realizes that, while his wife and career are gone, life can still be fulfilling. The movie encourages giving others grace, since you may not be aware of what they're going through. The residents in Otto's housing complex are diverse in terms of age, gender, race, economics, disability, and health, and they're the definition of "neighborly." Otto is counterbalanced by Marisol ( Mariana Treviño ), a positively portrayed Mexican immigrant mother of two who moves in across the street. In addition to Otto's attempts at ending his life, there's a road rage incident. Otto is impatient with others and calls them "idiots," "bastards," and "pr--ks." Other language includes "s--t" and "goddamn." Characters kiss. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parents say (24)
Kids say (23)

Based on 24 parent reviews

Multiple Realistic and Long-Form Depictions of Suicide

Could be triggering to those with mental illness, what's the story.

Tom Hanks is A MAN CALLED OTTO, the neighborhood crank who has no tolerance for those who don't follow the rules. After retiring and the loss of his wife, Otto feels he has nothing else to live for. But his pesky neighbors keep interrupting his attempts to end his life.

Is It Any Good?

With this remarkably warm and fulfilling film, Hanks and director Marc Forster pull off the impossible: making a family-friendly suicide comedy. Even though the 2015 Swedish original starring Rolf Lassgård was quite successful, after watching A Man Called Otto , it feels impossible to picture anyone else in the starring role. Hanks' grumpy old man trumps all of those who came before him: Clint Eastwood , Walter Matthau , Jack Lemmon , etc. He's so beloved that every rude thing he says is likely to make you laugh, and Forster smartly balances the crankiness by surrounding Otto with warmhearted souls who return his barbs with a knowing look and a smile: Yep, that's Otto! They don't take his mean streak to heart, and it allows viewers to go on the journey and care about him.

While we might understand that Otto "is something special," he's also the dark to the light that is Marisol (Mariana Treviño), the very pregnant woman who moves across the street from Otto. She's a flutter of radiant energy that just refuses to be pushed aside by Otto's hostility. And she's just one strong example of positive diverse representation in the film. The residents in Otto's townhouse complex represent "community" in every sense of the word: They're a family in their own unique way, with residents from all stages and walks of life who look out for each other in good times and bad. While Otto's suicide attempts do make the film too mature for younger children, it's a strong choice for movie night with teens and grandparents.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how A Man Called Otto plays on viewers' compassion . How can we practice patience for those who exhibit bitter behavior while also not indulging unacceptable treatment?

How does the movie portray depression and suicidal ideation? What should you do if you're worried about a friend or family member? What resources are available to help both kids and adults ? (If you or someone you love is in crisis, you can contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988.)

Even though Otto is impatient and unkind, did you find yourself rooting for him? What skills does Hanks use to make Otto likable and vulnerable?

Talk about the diversity represented in Otto's neighborhood. Does this accurately reflect real life? Why is positive representation in the media important?

Movie Details

In theaters : December 30, 2022
On DVD or streaming : February 28, 2023
Cast : Tom Hanks , Mariana Treviño , Manuel Garcia-Rulfo
Director : Marc Forster
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors
Studio : Columbia Pictures
Genre : Comedy
Topics : Book Characters
Character Strengths : Compassion
Run time : 126 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : mature thematic material involving suicide attempts, and language
Last updated : November 20, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

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DVD & Streaming

A Man Called Otto

Comedy , Drama

Content Caution

In Theaters

January 6, 2023
Tom Hanks as Otto Anderson; Mariana Treviño as Marisol; Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Tommy; Cameron Britton as Jimmy; Mack Bayda as Malcolm; Rachel Keller as Sonya; Juanita Jennings as Anita; Peter Lawson Jones as Reuben; Truman Hanks as Young Otto Anderson; Kailey Hyman as Barb; Max Pavel as Andy; Christiana Montoya as Luna; Alessandra Perez as Abbie; Greg Allan Martin as Lucas; Kelly Lamor Wilson as Shari Kenzie

Home Release Date

February 28, 2023
Marc Forster

Distributor

Columbia Pictures

Movie Review

“ Idiots ,” Otto grumbles with every step he takes.

He makes his rounds through the neighborhood, grumbling at every mistake people around him make. How hard is it to put your parking pass on the rearview mirror, close the neighborhood gate or put your bike in the bike rack? He grouses.

As far as he’s concerned, the America that Otto knew is dying. No one knows how to fix anything anymore. A predatory real estate agent looks for ways to buy the neighborhood properties out from under people. And take just yesterday, when Otto tried to buy five feet of rope, and they told him he would still need to pay for six feet—because it’s policy to only charge by the yard.

All of the problems of the world are only accentuated by the passing of Otto’s wife, Sonya, six months before. If Otto were to think about it, she was the real reason why the world was so great. She gave Otto’s world color. Now that she’s gone, the whole world’s gone greyscale.

But today, that’s all going to change. Because using that purchased rope to craft a noose, Otto’s going to rejoin his wife. He steps up on his coffee table and prepares to slip his head through the hole.

Just then, Otto is interrupted by the sound of new neighbors Tommy and Marisol, backing their U-Haul over the curb and into their property. Apparently, no one knows how to parallel park with a trailer anymore.

Idiots . Otto can’t stand it. He slips the noose off his head and goes over to teach these neighbors how to do it properly. He can always get back to his suicidal plans later—if only these amicable and caring neighbors would stop appearing so frequently in his life.

Positive Elements

Otto longs for better days—days when Sonya was alive, people knew how to fix things, and everything was a bit simpler. Otto says of his deceased wife, there’s “nothing before or after” her.

But Otto’s fixation on the things of the past is an idol in his heart, and it’s dragging the elderly man down into a bitter depression. As the story unfolds, we’re warned about how making anything an idol in our lives can quickly ruin us.

Though Otto’s love for Sonya reminds us of the value of marriage, his idolization of his wife has made her a crutch for the aging man; when she passes, Otto must learn how to walk on his own once again. He hangs onto those former days, refusing to get rid of his wife’s coats, which still hang on the coat rack. But when young Marisol discovers Otto’s pain, she gently shows him how moving on is good for him, and how it won’t disrespect Sonya’s memory to do so.

Otto learns another important lesson: You can’t do everything alone. Though Otto thinks the world is nothing but “idiots,” Marisol shows him how it’s OK to get help from others—even if you may need to teach them a thing or two before they can help.

And as for Marisol and Tommy (as well as a couple other neighbors), they put up with Otto’s many bitter remarks in order to befriend him. Otto, for his part, does help his neighbors when asked, even if he isn’t the friendliest about it (though he would disagree—he was being friendly, he insists).

Spiritual Elements

Otto often speaks with Sonya at her grave, telling her of how he plans to meet her again soon.

[ Spoiler Warning ] During one of Otto’s suicide attempts, the ghost of his wife speaks to him, discouraging him from taking his life. Later, Otto eventually does pass away (from natural causes), and a minster leads his funeral service.

Sexual Content

A prominent character named Malcolm is transgender. Malcolm’s father kicks him out for identifying in that way. Otto exclaims that anyone who disagrees with transgender ideology is “an idiot.”

A man wearing tight, revealing pants stretches, causing Otto to ask the man’s girlfriend if she can tell him to “stop stretching his groin in public.” A young Otto and Sonya kiss a couple times. Marisol and Tommy kiss, too.

Violent Content

There’s no getting around the central premise of the film: an elderly man who wants to kill himself to reunite with his wife in the afterlife. Otto’s initial attempt is followed by three more.

Otto hangs himself, but the hook snaps, causing him to collapse to the floor. He tries to take his life via carbon monoxide poisoning, but his neighbor interrupts him. He also stands in front of an oncoming train, but he is once again saved. Otto finally tries to shoot himself with a shotgun, but he is distracted, and the bullet instead fires into the ceiling.

Otto is quick to confront a couple people with violence. He assaults a hospital clown for not returning a personal memento. He also yanks someone from his truck after the man impatiently honks at him. And when a store employee asks if Otto needs help cutting rope, Otto asks if the employee is afraid that Otto may accidentally cut himself and bleed in the store.

A bus crashes, paralyzing a woman and causing a miscarriage. A man has a heart attack. A woman throws rocks at a stray cat.

Crude or Profane Language

The s-word is used four times. We also hear about a half-dozen instances each of “h—,” “b–tard” and “crap.” There are a couple uses of “b–ch,” “d–n,” “p-ss” and “pr-ck.” God’s name is used in vain 19 times, and two of those times are paired with “d–n.” And, of course, Otto calls pretty much everyone an “idiot.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Otto brings a bottle of liquor to reconnect with a friend. The two never get around to opening it.

Other Negative Elements

People film an elderly man who has fallen onto train tracks rather than helping him. Otto says a woman is “full of garbage.” A real estate agency gets illegal access to medical records in an effort to push elderly people out of their homes. A baby defecates. Otto is quite rude in most encounters.

It’s tough to move on from the loss of a loved one. Instead, Otto figures the easiest thing he can do is just to end his life and join his wife in the afterlife. But when friendly and insistent neighbors insist on growing closer to him, Otto’s sour opinion of life slowly begins to soften.

This film is remake of the 2015 Swedish film A Man Called Ove , which itself is based on Fredrik Backman’s 2012 novel of the same name. Throughout the movie, Tom Hanks’ Otto expresses his disgust at all the people who are ruining the world—namely, those who don’t know or care enough about how to fix things or follow rules.

And, if we’re being honest, there are a few things we’d wish A Man Called Otto would fix, too. For starters, the movie centers around a man attempting to commit suicide in a few different ways. In fact, even though this difficult subject is treated in a darkly humorous way, the film’s repeated depiction of it could still be potentially problematic for anyone who’s wrestled with this issue personally. On top of that, the movie also features quite a bit of crude language, and a prominent character is transgender.

Those content issues are deeply frustrating, because the film does provide a nice message regarding community and seeking help amid grief. But those redemptive themes come off a bit dull and muddled when clouded by the film’s bigger concerns.

Kennedy Unthank

Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”

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Review: 'A Man Called Otto' follows an obvious plot that can be seen from outer space

Tom Hanks saves the film from being a total loss.

Tom Hanks is one of our best actors, a gentleman star in the classic tradition of Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper. It's affection for the 66-year-old legend that helps ease the sugar shock of "A Man Called Otto," a theaters-only crowdpleaser that merely wants to entertain.

There's no crime in that. But this risk-free, rigorously conventional adaptation of the Swedish bestseller and Oscar-nominated 2015 foreign-language film, "A Man Called Otto," follows the broad strokes of a glaringly obvious plot that can be seen from outer space.

Hanks plays Otto Anderson, a grumpy old man who's been depressed to the point of attempting suicide since the death of his beloved wife. Hanks has played the dark side before, most recently in a fat suit and prosthetics as Elvis Presley's malevolent manager Col. Tom Parker in "Elvis."

PHOTO: Jimmy, played by Cameron Britton, jogs by Otto, played by Tom Hanks, in Columbia Pictures' "A Man Called Otto."

But critics and audiences tend to prefer Hanks in gentler mode, such as his Oscar-nominated turn as children's TV host Mr. Rogers in "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood." Not to worry, Otto is cranky all right, but his ill will is mostly on the comic surface.

"Idiot," is the word Otto, a retired engineer, throws around to insult everyone else living in his Pittsburgh neighborhood, especially those who don't recycle, don't know how to parallel park and don't get out of his way when he swan dives onto train tracks.

Hostile Otto grunts his disdain for the world at large. He doesn't turn Scrooge and mumble "Bah-humbug," but that's probably because it isn't Christmas yet. Poor Otto can't even enter a hardware store to buy 5 feet of rope -- he wants to hang himself -- without suffering pricing pushback from a clueless, millennial clerk.

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Flashbacks show us what a sweetie Otto was as a young man, played by Truman Hanks, the star's son, as he meets and falls hard for the literate and lovely Sonya (Rachel Keller), a teacher whose kindness gives his life meaning until an accident, hers, throws their lives out of balance.

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The director is the German-born Marc Forster, who made the worst James Bond movie ever in 2008's "Quantum of Solace," but showed an admirable edge in such films as "Monster's Ball" and "World War Z." That sharpness is totally MIA in the Otto story.

PHOTO: Tom Hanks is Otto Anderson in Columbia Pictures' "A Man Called Otto."

The catalyst for Otto's change of heart is his pregnant new neighbor Marisol (a swell Mariana Treviño), who's moved in with her husband Tommy (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and their two young daughters. Otto thinks Tommy is an idiot, but Marisol earns his grudging respect.

As for Otto's bias against immigrants, it's skin deep like Clint Eastwood's in "Gran Torino." Otto sees in Marisol the spark he so loved in his late wife. Soon he's giving this overworked mom driving lessons and eating her Mexican home cooking. And did I mention that Otto takes in a stray cat. He does. Shameless.

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A rubbed-raw drama this is not. Things get worse when Otto befriends a former student of his wife who is transgender. It's not like Otto is getting woke -- he was always woke on the inside.

With a lesser actor than Hanks, the movie would suck you down into sentimental quicksand. Even with Hanks, the gooey stuff is hard to hold back. But if all you're looking for in a movie during these stressful times is harmless fluff, then "A Man Called Otto" delivers the goods.

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A Man Called Otto Review

A Man Called Otto

The 2015 Swedish film A Man Called Ove — adapted from the novel of the same name by Fredrik Backman — is a very Scandinavian brand of feelgoodery: one which sees its hero regularly try to kill himself. It became a huge hit in its native country, beloved for its flinty anti-hero and morbid sense of humour, and remains the third biggest film of all time at the Swedish box office. Hollywood, inevitably, came calling soon after.

Like many English-language remakes, A Man Called Otto doesn’t totally justify its existence — you can’t help but wonder, when films are so easily available online, why not just point audiences to the original? But it does at least pull off a significant casting coup, in the form of Tom Hanks .

Tom Hanks is so good that the film suffers somewhat when he's not on screen.

Last seen this grouchy when announcing there was no crying in baseball, Hanks is clearly relishing playing against type here, abandoning his “America’s Dad” persona to step into Otto’s short-fused slippers. It’s a typically excellent lead performance, misanthropic yet good-hearted, Hanks finding and elevating the humanity in the character. (He is particularly adept at smiling without ever losing his frown.)

He’s so good, in fact, that the film suffers somewhat when he’s not on screen. It’s undoubtedly a lovely touch to cast Hanks’ real-life son Truman as the younger Otto in repeated flashbacks, fleshing out his early life and marriage to Sonya (Rachel Keller), but those scenes are by far the weakest, treacly and overly rose-tinted, and have an adverse effect on the film’s pace. It’s a constant tonal plate-spinning act, balancing the comic elements with the repeated scenes of attempted suicide, and despite its sharper edges, director Marc Forster doesn’t quite avoid sugary clichés.

What keeps it consistently likeable, Hanks aside, are the actors surrounding him. There’s a great role for Juanita Jennings as one of Otto’s estranged neighbours, and a surprisingly moving subplot about a trans teen in Otto’s life, played by trans actor Mack Bayda. Best among the ensemble is Mexican actor Mariana Treviño as Marisol, the mother of a new family living across the street from Otto; her vivacity and genial zest for life gives a supposedly grouchy film its warm heart. The It’s-A-Wonderful-Life -y message that eventually comes — that no man is a failure who has friends — is ultimately hard to snub.

Movies | 20 10 2022

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Movie review: 'living' and 'a man called otto'.

Bob Mondello

Two new films about men who find flexibility late in life, "Living" and "A Man Called Otto," are remakes of acclaimed foreign films: Director Akira Kurosawa's "Ikuru" and Sweden's "A Man Called Ove."

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Two cranky old men, two celebrated foreign films, and just in time for Christmas, two remakes starring Bill Nighy and Tom Hanks. Critic Bob Mondello says the films "Living" and "A Man Called Otto" both revolve around a character type we all recognize that this time of year. Dickens called him Scrooge.

BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: We meet Otto, played by Tom Hanks, in a hardware store.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "A MAN CALLED OTTO")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) The total is 3.47.

TOM HANKS: (As Otto) You charged me for 6 feet of rope.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Oh, yes. It's $0.99 a yard.

TOM HANKS: (As Otto) I didn't get 2 yards. I got 5 feet.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) We don't charge by the foot. We charge by the yard.

TOM HANKS: (As Otto) Ninety-nine cents a yard is 33...

MONDELLO: If you take a man's measure by how he treats others...

TOM HANKS: (As Otto) You charged me $1.98.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) You're good at math.

MONDELLO: ...Otto comes up short.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) I know, but I can't put it into the computer the way that you just said.

TOM HANKS: (As Otto) What the hell kind of computer can't do simple math?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) I got some change. Let me cover that extra $0.33 for you.

TOM HANKS: (As Otto) Sir, I do not want your 33 cents.

MONDELLO: He's not any friendlier with new neighbors, even when they come bearing gifts.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) I brought you some food.

TOM HANKS: (As Otto) Why?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) We wanted to properly introduce ourselves because, you know, we're going to be neighbors, I think, so...

TOM HANKS: (As Otto) OK.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) OK.

TOM HANKS: (As Otto) Bye.

MONDELLO: But her foot is in the door.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Are you always this unfriendly?

TOM HANKS: (As Otto) I'm not unfriendly.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Oh, OK, you're not. Every word you say is like a warm cuddle.

MONDELLO: There is a reason Otto's a curmudgeon. The recent passing of his wife has left his days empty, so he growls and argues to give himself reasons to go on. Not breaking new ground "In A Man Called Otto," it just wants to be a crowd pleaser, though there are nice variations on the Scandinavian original, "A Man Called Ove" - neighbors who are Black, Hispanic and trans, for instance. Tom Hanks is just the guy to make grumpiness appealing, and with his son Truman Hanks playing the character in flashbacks...

TRUMAN HANKS: (As Otto) Miss, you dropped your book.

MONDELLO: Director Marc Forster has ensured that sentiment will drive "A Man Called Otto," no matter how prickly its hero. Sentiment is far too showy an emotion for the buttoned-up hero of "Living" - ramrod straight, tailored in bowler hat and pinstripe suit. Bill Nighy is Mr. Williams, a widower toiling in a public works office in post-World War II London. His days heading a staff of six are unvarying and entirely pointless.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LIVING")

BILL NIGHY: (As Mr. Williams) Mr. Rusbridger, why has this D19 come back to us?

HUBERT BURTON: (As Mr. Rusbridger) Mr. Wright (ph) at planning was of the view that a remittance certificate should be attached to it.

NIGHY: (As Mr. Williams) The remittance certificate can only be issued after the D19 is authorized.

BURTON: (As Mr. Rusbridger) Yes. I tried to tell Mr. Wright that, Mr. Williams, but he simply won't have it.

NIGHY: (As Mr. Williams) Then we can keep it here for now.

MONDELLO: He inserts it in the middle of a stack of papers.

NIGHY: (As Mr. Williams) It'll do no harm.

MONDELLO: Tasked with shuttling skyscrapers of papers and the people who bring them from department to department...

NIGHY: (As Mr. Williams) Please show the ladies in, Mr. Singh. Mr. Middleton, your turn.

MONDELLO: Mr. Williams might continue this roundelay forever were he not confronted with a medical diagnosis. Six months, maybe nine, says his doctor.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) It's never easy, this.

NIGHY: (As Mr. Williams) Quite.

MONDELLO: Mr. Williams, reacting as anyone might, heads for the seashore, determined to - he's not sure what, as he tells a louche writer he meets there.

NIGHY: (As Mr. Williams) I withdrew this cash and came down here to enjoy myself, but I realized I don't know how.

MONDELLO: Happily, the writer has a few ideas. Still, momentary pleasures are momentary. And when Mr. Williams returns to London, he seeks a more lasting purpose to his time remaining - a reference letter to help a young woman in his office, say. And what about those ladies who've been petitioning his department for months?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) They even sought to offer us a bench to sit on. That's how long we was there.

MONDELLO: Might he actually make the playground they want a reality without, you know, raising his voice or violating rules of decorum?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) Leave it with us. We'll send it down to you once it's ready.

NIGHY: (As Mr. Williams) Actually, I was hoping you might see to it now, and I could take it off your hands straight away.

MONDELLO: South African director Oliver Hermanus, working from a script by Kazuo Ishiguro, who wrote "Remains Of The Day," makes "Living" an elegant retelling of Kurosawa's "Ikiru," "To Live." It's brimming with period detail and delicate performances, none more heartbreaking than Nighy's Mr. Williams, who would likely be appalled by Tom Hanks' "Man Called Otto" but who comes to a remarkably similar end slowly, to his own surprise, and almost too late - finding purpose in living. I'm Bob Mondello.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

'A Man Called Otto’ Review: Tom Hanks Is a Grumpy Old Man in Tonally Awkward Adaptation

Marc Forster's adaptation of Fredrik Backman's "A Man Called Ove" is at its best when it focuses on friendships and not the gruffness.

Within the opening moments of A Man Called Otto , the second adaptation of Fredrik Backman ’s novel A Man Called Ove , you can see the problems inherent in this retelling. Otto Anderson ( Tom Hanks ) is a grumpy man in his 60s who we first see at a hardware store. He rudely tells the employee (played by Please Don't Destroy’s John Higgins ) that he would like to cut the length of rope he wants himself, then complains when he's overcharged pennies for what he is buying. The whole time, Thomas Newman 's quirky score hints at a jovial story underneath the crotchety man we see before us. After quickly visiting his retirement party and some prickly interactions with his neighbors, we discover that Otto bought this rope with the intention to hang himself in his living room.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who read the Backman book, or saw 2015's Swedish film adaptation of this story. But this version, from Christopher Robin and Finding Neverland director Marc Forster , handles the mixtures of comedy and drama in a peculiar and often bizarre way that both negates much of the emotional heft of the story, and sometimes leads to unintentional humor.

Otto is a man that is mad at the world. In addition to his frustrations with being asked to retire, Otto is constantly getting annoyed at the younger people he comes across on a daily basis, as well as the people who follow the arbitrary rules that he's placed on the neighborhood. But mostly, Otto is angry at the world because he no longer gets to live in it with his wife Sonya, who recently died. While visiting her grave, Otto states “nothing works when you're not at home," and for the gruff man who actually grumbles for people to get off his lawn, it’s clear he wants things to work exactly how he likes, and now, life can no longer be repaired in the way he needs it to be.

RELATED: Tom Hanks Plays Two Very Different Music Managers in ‘Elvis’ and ‘That Thing You Do!’

Otto’s plans to return to his wife, as he puts it, are paused when Marisol ( Mariana Treviño ) and her family move in to the neighborhood. Otto and Marisol strike up an unlikely friendship, and Otto begins to see the small joys in life as he helps his new neighbors.

Throughout A Man Called Otto , we also get to see Otto’s memories of when he was younger (played by Truman Hanks ) and getting to know Sonya ( Rachel Keller ). While it’s important that we see the beginnings of Otto and Sonya’s relationship, the eccentricities of Forster's approach become most apparent in these flashbacks. The relationship between Otto and Sonya feels more like the bond between a brother and sister, and while the younger Otto seems like he might be on the spectrum, we never get much of an inclination that that is also the case with the older Otto.

These flashbacks are also intended to be some of the most powerful moments within the film, and yet, the way Forster brings them to life is peculiar and undercuts their potential. For example, these moments often come when Otto is attempting suicide, and Forster’s decision to go back-and-forth between these youthful moments and Otto trying to take his own life is truly unusual. Plus, the film's heavy-handed choices in songs are at their worst in these moments, as these egregious choices are distractingly bad, and these scenes would be far more effective had they been excised altogether.

The screenplay from David Magee , who previously collaborated with Forster on Finding Neverland , and this year alone has written The School for Good and Evil and Lady Chatterly’s Lover , has its heart in the right place, but the attempts to make the audience cry are blunt and too obvious. A Man Called Otto also almost feels like it's part of an exaggerated version of our world, where the young folks are almost always wrong, and things aren't as good as they used to be "back in my day.” At one point, an older man falls on a train track, and Otto jumps down to retrieve him. The other younger people waiting on the train, however, are more focused on filming the incident and getting the right angle on the old man than actually helping. It’s just one of a few silly details that break the humanity that Magee is attempting to cultivate in this story. Magee has proven a deft hand with slow-burn films that make the waterworks come eventually, like with Finding Neverland and Life of Pi , but the somewhat awkward performances of the younger Otto and Sonya, mixed with the extremely questionable music choices undercuts what is primarily a story about a man falling in love with life again.

A Man Called Otto also comes at the end of one of Hanks' weirdest years, which has seen him play Colonel Tom Parker in Baz Luhrmann ’s Elvis , and take on the role of Geppetto in Robert Zemeckis ' nightmarish Pinocchio update. A Man Called Otto is certainly a better example of Hanks’ gifts, however, as no matter how cantankerous Otto gets, we still love the guy because it’s Tom Hanks . Yet Hanks doesn’t shy away from the darker moments, as we believe that Otto truly has lost the will to live, and especially the moments where he visits his wife’s grave and talks about how she's coming to her soon are heartbreaking because of Hanks’ performance.

But despite the name, the real star of A Man Called Otto is Treviño as Marisol, who right away doesn't put up with Otto’s crap and handles him with both sternness and love—the way Sonya also did. From the moment Treviño appears in the film, we can feel her warmth for Otto and the entire community she is now a part of. Through her role, we see how found families can be just as important as real family, and how through experiences with others, those we've lost can still live on in a way. Naturally, A Man Called Otto is at its best when the coldness of Otto and the love of Marisol play off each other, as we watch this friendship blossom.

Especially compared to the 2015 adaptation, A Man Called Otto is a clunky update that often feels like it's full of cartoonish characters, with poor music choices, and cloying sentimentality. But when Forster and Magee pull away from these eccentricities, the story of Otto and Marisol is often a thing of beauty, and wonderful friendship that is lovely to watch grow. It’s easy when watching A Man Called Otto to feel like Otto: frustrated by most of what's going on, but with brief glimmers of the beauty within the world around you.

A Man Called Otto comes to theaters in limited release starting on December 30, followed by a wider release on January 13, 2023.

IMAGES

A Man Called Otto (2022)
'A Man Called Otto'
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'A Man Called Otto' (2022) Movie Review: Tom Hanks As Tom Hanks
A Man Called Otto (2022)
Movie Review: A Man Called Otto

COMMENTS

A Man Called Otto movie review (2022)
Powered by JustWatch. In Marc Forster 's genial, earnest yet unremarkable dramedy "A Man Called Otto," the titular character Otto can't pick his daily battles even if his life depended on it. Living in an unfussy suburban neighborhood of identical row houses somewhere in the Midwest, the aging man gets easily annoyed by every little ...
A Man Called Otto
When a lively young family moves in next door, he meets his match in quick-witted and very pregnant Marisol, leading to an unexpected friendship that will turn his world upside-down. Rating: PG-13 ...
'A Man Called Otto' Review: Tom Hanks Learns Life Lessons
A MAN CALLED OTTO - Official Trailer (HD) Watch on. Forster handles the flashback of the back story (in which the star's son, Truman Hanks, plays a younger Otto) in gauzy-arty fashion. When the ...
A Man Called Otto
Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 31, 2023. Matthew Creith Matinee With Matt. If not for Tom Hanks, "A Man Called Otto" might be a boring tale of one grumpy man's perseverance against the ...
A Man Called Otto (2022)
A Man Called Otto: Directed by Marc Forster. With Tom Hanks, John Higgins, Tony Bingham, Lily Kozub. Otto is a grump who's given up on life following the loss of his wife and wants to end it all. When a young family moves in nearby, he meets his match in quick-witted Marisol, leading to a friendship that will turn his world around.
'A Man Called Otto' Review: Tom Hanks in Appealing Remake
Release date: Friday, Dec. 30. Cast: Tom Hanks, Mariana Trevino, Rachel Keller, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Truman Hanks, Mike Birbiglia. Director: Marc Foster. Screenwriter: David Magee. Rated PG-13, 2 ...
A Man Called Otto review
A Hollywood remake of the glumly life-affirming 2015 Swedish box-office hit A Man Called Ove, which was itself based on a bestselling novel, A Man Called Otto taps into a seemingly unquenchable ...
A Man Called Otto (2022)
Tom Hanks did it again. rexmatthewj 5 August 2023. A Man Called Otto (2022) is a remake of the 2015 Swedish film A Man Called Ove, which was based on the 2012 novel by Fredrik Backman. The film stars Tom Hanks as Otto, a bitter and lonely widower who plans to end his life after losing his wife Sonya (Rachel Keller).
A Man Called Otto Review
The Best Movie of 2022. 6 Images. A Man Called Otto is ultimately a formulaic comedy-drama that leans far too much on tried and tested cliches. A charismatic central performance from Hanks ...
'A Man Called Otto' review: A gruff (but charming) Tom Hanks
Otto seems at first to be a rigid, stuck-in-his-ways old man similar to the type Clint Eastwood has played recently in films such as "Gran Torino," "The Mule" and "Cry Macho," men who ...
'A Man Called Otto' Review: Tom Hanks and a Cat Are Irresistible
Review of A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks. Screenwriter David Magee and director Marc Forster have not altered the basic plot for this Pittsburgh-set remake titled A Man Called Otto, but ...
A Man Called Otto
Feb 22, 2024. "A Man Named Otto" is a thought-provoking drama that delves into the depths of human emotions, showcasing a powerful story of redemption and self-discovery. Directed by a visionary filmmaker and brought to life by an exceptional cast, this film takes viewers on an emotional rollercoaster ride, leaving a lasting impact long after ...
'A Man Called Otto' Review: Tom Hanks Plays a Florid Grump
Crew: Director: Marc Forster. Screenplay: David Magee. Camera: Mathuas Koenigswieser. Editor: Matt Chessé. Music: Thomas Newman. With: Tom Hanks, Mariana Treviño, Rachel Keller, Truman Hanks ...
A Man Called Otto review
A Man Called Otto is released on 25 December in the US, on 1 January in Australia and on 6 January in the UK. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans ...
A Man Called Otto Review: A Charming Film Held Back By Odd Tonal
A decent movie hampered by tonal inconsistencies. Beyond the performances, a lot of other elements work in how the tale of "A Man Called Otto" is told. A number of comedic moments work well ...
A Man Called Otto Movie Review
Parents need to know that Tom Hanks produced and stars in A Man Called Otto, an ultimately life-affirming dramedy that deals frankly with suicidal ideation. Adapted from Fredrik Backman's bestselling book and the Academy Award-nominated 2015 Swedish film A Man Called Ove, it centers on a man named Otto (Hanks), the epitome of the cranky "get off my lawn" type, who wants to end his life as a ...
A Man Called Otto
A Man Called Otto is a 2022 American comedy-drama film directed by Marc Forster from a screenplay by David Magee.It is a remake of the 2015 Swedish film A Man Called Ove, which was based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Fredrik Backman.The film stars Tom Hanks in the title role, with Mariana Treviño, Rachel Keller, and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in supporting roles.
A Man Called Otto
This film is remake of the 2015 Swedish film A Man Called Ove, which itself is based on Fredrik Backman's 2012 novel of the same name. Throughout the movie, Tom Hanks' Otto expresses his disgust at all the people who are ruining the world—namely, those who don't know or care enough about how to fix things or follow rules.
Review: 'A Man Called Otto' follows an obvious plot that can be seen
There's no crime in that. But this risk-free, rigorously conventional adaptation of the Swedish bestseller and Oscar-nominated 2015 foreign-language film, "A Man Called Otto," follows the broad ...
A Man Called Otto Review
A Man Called Otto. The 2015 Swedish film A Man Called Ove — adapted from the novel of the same name by Fredrik Backman — is a very Scandinavian brand of feelgoodery: one which sees its hero ...
Movie Review: 'Living' and 'A Man Called Otto'
Two new films about men who find flexibility late in life, "Living" and "A Man Called Otto," are remakes of acclaimed foreign films: Director Akira Kurosawa's "Ikuru" and Sweden's "A Man Called Ove."
A MAN CALLED OTTO
Discover what can happen when you let life in. See Tom Hanks as Otto in #AManCalledOtto, in select theaters Christmas and starts everywhere January 13. Websi...
A Man Called Otto Review: Tom Hanks Stars in Tonally Awkward ...
Naturally, A Man Called Otto is at its best when the coldness of Otto and the love of Marisol play off each other, as we watch this friendship blossom. Especially compared to the 2015 adaptation ...

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