by Casey DiBari
This weekend I had the pleasure of heading to the theater to see the newest Tom Hanks project, ‘A Man Called Otto.’ The movie, produced by Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, follows Otto Anderson (Hanks), a sixty-something-year-old man whose life starts to change when he meets his new neighbors, young parents Marisol (Mariana Trevino) and Tommy (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo). It is the American adaptation of the Swedish novel, ‘A Man Called Ove,’ written by Fredrik Backman and released in 2012.
Despite the simple-seeming plot of the movie, in reality, ‘Otto’ is much heavier than some might think. Early on, the movie greets its viewers with topics of suicide, which is prevalent and essential to the film’s plot. Along with that, a heavy theme of death and grief follows Otto, who lost his wife, Sonya, shortly before the story starts. So if these topics are difficult at the moment, I suggest approaching this movie with these topics in mind.
Otto, though shown to be very grouchy and annoyed with everyone on the outside, as shown by his habit of rolling his eyes and muttering when anyone says something he deems to be stupid, is also shown to be someone who truly cares about those around him. Whether it is teaching Marisol how to drive a car, watching her and Tommy’s two daughters when they go out on a date, adopting a stray cat that’s been circling around him, or saving a man who falls onto a set of train tracks, Otto’s big heart (both literal and figurative) is something that comes through in Hank’s performance of the character very well.
Frankly, despite some mediocre reviews that the movie has been getting, there can be an argument made for this being a top-tier Tom Hanks performance; At the same time, it’s no Forrest Gump or Woody the Cowboy, its something you can hold up against his roles in ‘Catch Me if You Can’ or, more recently, ‘Elvis’.
The movie also features Truman Hanks (son of Tom and Rita) as a younger version of Otto, and Rachel Keller as Otto’s late wife Sonya.
Three Shot Media 