A Man Called Otto

This is a version of a review that aired on ABC Radio across regional Victoria on February 2, 2023.

(M) ★★★★

Director: Marc Forster.

Cast: Tom Hanks, Mariana Treviño, Truman Hanks, Rachel Keller, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Cameron Britton, Mack Bayda, Juanita Jennings, Emonie Ellison, Peter Lawson Jones.

No one told Otto it was Tracksuit Day.

Like all self-respecting film reviewers, I love being able to tell people that the American remake of a non-English language film is crap by comparison.

Given the opportunity, I will wax lyrical about how Let The Right One In is superior to the (admittedly excellent) Let Me In, or how Niels Arden Oplev's version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is better than David Fincher's (also pretty good) version, or how The Upside is a piece of shit next to The Intouchables.

But I can't do this here, only because I've not seen the Swedish original A Man Called Ove. I haven't even read the original book, so I can't play the beloved "the book was better" card either.

All I can tell you is that A Man Called Otto is a predictable tear-jerker made no less enjoyable or heartfelt by its predictability.

In fact, the large numbers of old ladies commentating their way through the screening I was at and letting everyone know what was happening 30 seconds before it happened couldn't even detract from the film's sweet-but-gooey centre.

The titular Otto Anderson is a misanthropic grump, made acceptably so by America's favourite uncle, Tom Hanks. He lives in a semi-gated community where he ensures that the right rubbish goes in the right recycling bin, that only cars with permits get through the gates, and that the footpath to his door is always shovelled clear in snow season, despite no one wanting to visit him.

Naturally there are sad secrets behind Otto's cantankerousness, and the arrival of some new migrants across the way are likely to shovel the snow right off of Otto's frozen-over heart.

A Man Called Otto is about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the plums, and has a wind-up you can see coming from a mile away, but when it hits you it still hurts. The senior Hanks (his son Truman plays the young Otto) brings gravitas to everything he does these days, so even when delivering one of his more obvious performances, he makes the emotions feel real, such is his still-impeccable gift for being the everyman.

Treviño as the vivacious force of nature Marisol is also great, bringing a spark to every scene she's in. Garcia-Rulfo and Britton add welcome comedic touches amid the film's surprisingly dark and traumatic moments, while Bayda and Keller make some of the more obvious contrivances palatable.

Forster does his best with the material, draping scenes with a fitting drabness and a pleasingly organised symmetry to reflect Otto's way of life. The director also manages to weave the film's myriad flashbacks throughout in a surprisingly unobtrusive way. 

In lesser hands, and without a star as magnetic yet workmanlike as Hanks, A Man Called Otto would struggle under the weight of its often dark material and matching humour. That it strikes a sweet balance with its desire to warm hearts is a credit also to a deft script. In the end, it doesn't really matter that you can see what's coming like a car with its high beams on. Or by being at a screening full of commentating old ladies.