A MAN CALLED OTTO : Tuesday 3rd January 2023

I saw the M Rated 'A MAN CALLED OTTO' earlier this week, following its release here in Australia on New Years Day. This American comedy drama film is Directed by Marc Forster and is the second film adaptation of the 2012 novel 'A Man Called Ove' by Swedish author Fredrik Backman, following the 2015 Swedish film of the same name Written and Directed by Hannes Holm. Marc Forster's prior film making credits take in the likes of 'Monster's Ball' in 2001, 'Finding Neverland' in 2004, 'The Kite Runner' in 2007, 'Quantum of Solace' in 2008, 'World War Z' in 2013 and 'Christopher Robin' in 2018. The film saw a limited release in the US from 30th December before a much wider release from 13th January, has garnered mixed or average reviews and has so far grossed US$3M at the Box Office on a production budget of US$50M.

The film opens up with Otto Anderson (Tom Hanks) searching amongst the shelves of his local 'Big Beaver' hardware store. He buy a sturdy enough looking hook, and very specifically five feet of thick rope. When he goes to pay, the teller charges him for two yards of rope, which Otto very astutely says that he has been overcharged by one foot, and why is he being charged for six feet of rope when he only needs, and has cut the length of, five feet? The teller tells him that the computer only charges by the yard, so Otto asks to see the manager, who is at lunch, so he asks to see the assistant manager, who turns up to be a young girl old enough to be his grand daughter, whom he greets with 'shouldn't you be in gym class'? This sets the tone of this grumpy sixty year old man, who it seems behind closed doors and more often that not under his breath, calls just about everyone he comes into contact with an 'idiot'!

We subsequently learn that Otto's wife, and life long love, Sonya (Rachel Keller) has recently passed away, and he was forced into taking a severance package from his job at a steel plant firm that he held down for about forty years. Otto leads a simple life and by a staunch set of principles, strict routines and a relatively short fuse, giving just about everyone in his gated neighbourhood community a hard time as he watches over it, and them, like a man on a mission. However, for this creature of habit, his life now has no meaning since the passing of Sonya, and so using the hook and the five feet of rope he purchased recently he drills a hole in the ceiling into the joist, screws in the hook, and ties the rope into a noose with the intention of hanging himself. 

As he places the noose around his neck he spies through his lounge room window a car with U-Haul trailer attempting to back into the side of the road directly opposite from where he lives. Perplexed by this notion, he dashes out the front to be greeted by Marisol (Mariana Trevino), her husband Tommy (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and two young daughters who are renting the place, with Tommy unsuccessfully attempting to back up his trailer with Marisol supposedly guiding her husband. Otto ultimately jumps into the car and successful reverses the car and trailer in with ease. Job done. He goes back inside his house, and hangs himself. But his attempt at taking his own life is thwarted as the hook snaps and he crashes down to the floor. 

Marisol and Tommy come knocking on Otto's door sometime later with a serving of Pollo Con Mole which he reluctantly takes and eats with gusto when he is alone later, but he has to eat it cold because just before trying to hang himself he had the electricity cut off and the telephone line disconnected too. Later Tommy asks Otto if he can borrow a set of allen keys to build some flat pack furniture and on another occasion a ladder to fix a window from the outside that won't open. Otto is obliging. 

Through flashbacks we see when Otto was in his early twenties (played by Truman Hanks, Tom's son) when he first set eyes on Sonya, and how their love for each other blossomed. Otto wanted to join the army but was refused entry because of medical reasons - he suffers from idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, an enlarged heart, and so took up engineering instead. Upon successfully graduating from college, he asks Sonya to marry him, and she without hesitations says yes. In time, she becomes pregnant, and at the six month point they are both looking forward to the arrival of their first born. They decide to take a holiday to Niagara Falls before the birth of their child, and while travelling on a bus together to their destination, the bus careers of the road, rolls several times before coming to rest. Otto was in the toilet at the time and was saved from much of the impact, but Sonya was thrown out of the window, resulting in her becoming paralysed from the waist down and losing their baby. 

Otto regularly visits Sonya's final resting place in the graveyard bringing her fresh flowers and a chair to sit in where he talks to her about his failed attempts to reunite with her, the state of America and what's being going on in his community. His suicide attempts are through gassing himself in his car in his garage with carbon monoxide fumes but this is thwarted when Marisol comes banging on the garage door begging him to drive her to the hospital because Tommy has injured his foot trying to repair the window while balancing on the ladder, and Marisol can't drive. On another occasion Otto drives to the local train station with the intention of throwing himself in front of an oncoming train, but his thwarted when a man collapses on to the tracks suffering a cardiac arrest and Otto jumps down to save him. Otto is hailed a hero and generates a million views on a social media platform. On the last occasion, Otto take his shotgun with the intention of blowing his brains out, but he has a vision of Sonya telling him that its time to live his life, and so he shoots a hole in the ceiling instead. 

Otto is brought further into the life of his neighbours Anita (Juanita Jennings), her disabled husband Rueben (Peter Lawson Jones) and their surrogate son Jimmy (Cameron Britton) when it is revealed that their estranged real son whom that haven't seen in years and who now resides in Japan has, through the power of attorney, put their house on the market with Real Estate Agency 'Dye & Merica' and forced his Mum and Dad into care homes. When the Real Estate Agent (Mike Birbiglia) turns up to take possession of the house, Otto had done his homework on their behalf and uncovered some nefarious goings on that results in the agent departing empty handed, and Anita and Rueben remaining secure in their family home. 

On another occasion, Otto gets talking to a newspaper delivery lad called Malcolm (Mack Bayda), who it turns out is transgender and was taught in school by Sonya. He tells Otto that it was Sonya who accepted him for what he was and that helped him through a very tough few years at school. One night Malcolm turns up on Otto's doorstep asking if he could crash their for the night because his own Dad kicked him out. Otto agrees. In time, Otto shows Malcolm and Jimmy his daily routines around the community, with the desire that they can assume his mantle when he is gone. And on a final occasion, Otto teaches Marisol to drive his manual car, because he thinks it's crazy for a woman of some thirty years of age not to be able to drive. Otto thereafter gives his car to Malcolm, who was saving up his money from working three jobs, to buy a second hand Volkswagen much to Otto's chagrin. Otto then goes out and buys a brand new Chevrolet truck. 

All of these kind and compassionate acts, largely thanks to Marisol's outgoing and tell it as she sees it personality, leads Otto to open up, embrace the joys of life, and accept people for what and who they are. As Otto's relationships with his neighbours strengthens, he finds himself becoming increasingly involved in their lives and helping them through their various challenges. One day Otto collapses in the road outside his house due to his heart condition. Marisol is on hand at the hospital when he comes round. A nurse enters his room and asks her is she is the next of kin, to which she says yes. The nurse reveals to Marisol, that Otto has a 'big heart' and that he needs to take care of himself, at which point Marisol starts giggling which quickly turns into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. 

We fast forward a couple of years and Otto has found solace and purpose in helping others and rediscovering his love of life. In the end, Otto learns to let go of his grief and embrace the joys of living in the present moment. One day however, Tommy notices that Otto had not swept away the snow from his front door and the pavement running alongside his house, which was a ritual he used to do every day during winter when it snowed. Marisol runs over to the house with Tommy following behind. She runs upstairs to find Otto collapsed on the bed, face down, dead. Marisol is distraught and Tommy picks up a note from the dresser addressed to her. In it, he has written out his wishes in the event of his death. It reads that he was never extravagant with his money and as such there is sufficient funds to put their children through a good education, and whatever monies are left over they can spend it as they so choose. He also leaves his home to them, his brand new Chevrolet truck, with the only condition that only Marisol can drive it and under no circumstances can Tommy be permitted to do so, because she is no 'idiot', and that his funeral service is to be low key affair. 

'America's Dad' has become 'America's Grumpy Old Granddaddy' in this Hollywood remake of a popular Swedish film from a only a few years ago, that once again showcases Tom Hanks enormous talent as a dramatic Actor to be able to portray a curmudgeonly cantankerous crowd pleasing character that ultimately turns Otto into a heartwarming sentimental one that is able to finally let go of his past and embrace what he has left of his future. Hanks and Trevino are well cast as the Yin and Yang neighbours, and Director Forster has here crafted a film that is both subtle and restrained while also offering up some laugh out loud moments, and an ending that is sure to pull at the heartstrings, albeit way too predictable almost from the outset.

'A Man Called Otto' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-