Film Review: "A Man Called Otto" (2022).

"Fall in love with the grumpiest man in the world." This is A Man Called Otto. This comedy-drama film directed by Marc Forster, adapted by David Magee, and based on the 2012 novel A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. It is an English-language remake of the 2015 Swedish film of the same title written and directed by Hannes Holm. The film tells the story of Otto Anderson, a grump who no longer sees purpose in his life following the loss of his wife. Otto is ready to end it all, but his plans are interrupted when a lively young family moves in next door, and he meets his match in quick-witted Marisol. She challenges him to see life differently, leading to an unlikely friendship that turns his world around.

In September 2017, it was announced that Tom Hanks would star in an English-language adaptation of the 2015 adaptation of Backman's 2012 novel. In January 2022, Forster was hired to direct with Magee hired to pen the adaption. In early February 2022, it was announced that Sony Pictures pre-bought the rights to the film for around US$60 million at the European Film Market. By late February, Mariana Treviño, Rachel Keller, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Cameron Britton, and Mike Birbiglia rounded out the films' cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in May. Filming took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The film stars Hanks, Treviño, Keller, Garcia-Rulfo, Britton, and Birbiglia. Hanks offers one of the best performances of his career. Otto is alternately smug, confused, selfish, clueless, helpless, mournful, and ultimately, hopeful. I don't know if there is another actor alive who could have made the film as entertaining as it is. Hanks makes Forster's film look better than it is, but he can't save it from being overlong, repetitious, and flat.

The film is like The Straight Story and Ikiru without beauty, warmth, the delightful discoveries along the way, or the hope. The film offers only the sporadic laugh, the less frequent original cultural insight and, at best, a craftsmanlike performance from its aging headliner. Ultimately this is a frustrating patchwork: an uneasy marriage of Backman's source novel and Holm's screenplay. It's a boring movie about a boring man, made watchable by a bravura performance from a consummate actor incapable of being boring. It's little more than a lightweight satire about the average life of a typical man in Pittsburgh that shows no affection for its characters like Fargo does for Midwesterners. Forster has taken a giant of American acting and awakened a midget in him -- a miserable, grumpy bore who seems to deserve his pipsqueak destiny. The movie feels as soft and as lost as Otto himself, and it's not until he grows a heart that it's buoyed by a game supporting cast. There's nothing especially tragic and affecting here, just a bland character coping with some amusing family politics. Despite Hanks' competence, this comedy about a retiree in Pittsburgh never goes beyond mocking its characters and flattering its audience.

Simon says A Man Called Otto receives:

Also, see my review for Christopher Robin.