A Man Called Otto
starring Tom Hanks, Mariana Trevino, Rachel Keller, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Truman Hanks and Mike Birbiglia
screenplay by David Magee
directed by Marc Forster
Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Based on the Swedish novel En man som heter Ove by Fredrik Bachman (2012), and the movie “En man son heter Ove” (2015, directed by Hannes Holm). The movie reminded me of the 2008 Clint Eastwood movie Gran Torino in that the story features a grossly unpleasant old widower who is slowly softened by his tolerant neighbors.
A Man Called Otto is billed as a comedy-drama, but the main character, Otto Anderson, is so disagreeable that calling any of it “comedy” seems to strain the language a bit. Otto Anderson is a 63-year-old widower, living in a rowhouse in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Six months after losing his wife Sonya, a schoolteacher, Otto has become a cynical, fastidious curmudgeon. He’s the kind of old man who yells at children to get off his lawn. Not metaphorically, but literally. From periodic flashbacks to his life with Sonya, it seems he was always fastidious. He’s a man who follows rules, and expects the same from others. Now, pushed into retirement from his job at a steel plant, he cancels his utilities and plans to kill himself, to join his late wife. He very graphically tries three expiration methods in the course of the film, but he can’t seem to get it done. That’s quite odd for him, because Otto is a practical and thorough man who knows how to do things. His repeated failures are not due to lack of resolve so much as the constant interruptions from his neighbors, especially the new couple with two young children directly across the street, Tommy and Marisol.
Otto’s devotion to his neighborhood against encroachment by a big condo developer helps keep him connected to his neighbors’ lives - or at least to the neighborhood and all its goings on. Even though he’s disgusted and angry at everyone, he nevertheless starts developing an awkward relationship with Tommy and Marisol, and their two young daughters. As a practical and methodical man who knows how to get things done, he grudgingly teaches Marisol to drive (a standard transmission), helps another neighbor, Anita, with her radiators, and is friendly with a transgender delivery boy who is a former student of his late wife.
In the end, commitment to his neighborhood dissuades him from suicide. He survives to die naturally of heart disease. Tommy and Marisol, who show near superhuman patience dealing with him, discover that he has left them his house, his car, and all of his savings, somewhat similar to how Walt Kowalski leaves his beloved and coveted Gran Torino car to his Hmong neighbor, Thao Vang Lor.
Tom Hanks’ son, Truman, plays young Otto. Interesting.