Director: Marc Forster
REVIEW BY PAUL MARINO*
A Man Called Otto, is Marc Forster’s thirteenth feature film and one of his best, but certainly not in the top spot. That honor belongs to Finding Neverland, his 2004 masterpiece starring Johnny Depp as J.M. Barrie, who was inspired to write Peter Pan after meeting the Llewelyn Davies family, in particular widow Sylvia (Kate Winslet) & young Peter (Freddie Highmore). Barrie, who is in his late 30’s, is as happy-go-lucky as a young boy. By contrast, Otto (Tom Hanks) is 63 years old, recently retired, and not in the least youthfully exuberant. Early on, we learn that he’s recently widowed himself.
The movie opens with Otto in the Busy Beaver Hardware Store, measuring out & buying 5 feet of rope, which costs 99 cents a yard. When he goes to pay, he expects the cost to be for 5 feet, not 2 yards, and makes a huge male-Karen scene about the extra foot that he did not want, did not cut, and refuses to pay for. It is immediately clear to the audience that Otto is The Misanthrope, and like Alceste in Moliere’s so-named play, he criticizes everyone, Otto with his standard “Idiot!”. He has no friends, although two of his neighbors, Anita (Juanita Jennings) & Jimmy (Cameron Britton) treat him respectfully & kindly. He spends his mornings doing his routines, what he calls his “rounds”, inspecting the entire community In which he lives, making sure there is nothing out of place, that all the inhabitants are following the HOA rules, and all recycling is in its proper receptacle. Otto is a mechanical engineer…a very regimented engineer, to the point of being OCD. When he is done with his rounds, he goes to visit his wife Sonya’s (Rachel Keller) grave; he brings her flowers and talks to her about what he’s been doing. One day, after completing his rounds, he sees what is apparently his new neighbors across the street – a young Hispanic couple – parallel parking their car and U-Haul…poorly. This really annoys Otto. He can’t stand “idiots” who don’t know how to drive, so he handles the task for them, muttering about their rear view camera (which he nonetheless uses). Once done, he turns around and is surprised to see the couple’s two young daughters, Luna & Abby (Christiana Montoya & Alessandra Perez), in the back seat. Later that day, to show their appreciation for helping them, Marisol & Tommy (Marina Treviño & Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) bring Otto one of Marisol’s specialties, pollo con mole, hitting accidentally on one of the things that makes Otto a little happy: FOOD! Sonya was a great cook. Despite Otto’s best efforts to dismiss her, Marisol is unrelentingly friendly, and will not give up on her mission to tear down the Pink Floydian Wall he’s built up around himself to protect his emotions. Her husband Tommy, completely unlike Otto, is not very handy. He has no tools and needs help fixing things, and Otto begrudgingly complies.
A Man Called Otto is a close adaptation of Hannes Holm’s 2015 double-Oscar nominated Swedish film, and the novel on which it was based, Fredrik Backman’s “A Man Call Ove”. Otto, amazingly, was overlooked by all the major awards groups. It is, in this reviewer’s opinion, even better than Ove, which is very, very good, and my pick for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2017 at the 89th Academy Awards. As of this writing, A Man Called Otto is available for streaming on various platforms including On Demand, Prime Video, and Apple TV. A MUST SEE. 4-Stars!
* Paul is the host for The Hub on Canal’s monthly Art in the Form of Film series. The Hub on Canal is a
non-profit art gallery/collective in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
A Man Called Otto Official Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFYUX9l-m5I
