A Man Called Otto (2022 | USA | 126 minutes | Marc Forster)

I think everyone knows someone who could be called a “creature of habit,” someone who finds comfort in a daily routine, eating the same meals, doing the same chores, like clockwork. But I don’t think many people know someone like Area Man Otto Anderson.

Played by Tom Hanks, Otto is a curmudgeon’s curmudgeon. Perpetually cranky, he will interrupt his own suicide to yell at someone for parking askew in his cul de sac or he’ll cause a scene at the hardware store because he needs just five feet of rope but is charged for two yards (a difference of about 30 cents). In the Tom Hanks canon, he’s a mixture of Forrest Gump and Doug from “Black Jeopardy!” on “Saturday Night Live.” After his beloved wife dies and he’s forced out of his job, he morphs into the neighborhood grouch, impatient and thinks of everyone else as an idiot and is not shy letting you know. The world he now inhabits makes no sense to him. And be sure to keep anyone you see having trouble parallel parking a car with an automatic transmission in your prayers. Meanwhile he decides to start winding down his life and has four failed suicide attempts, a possible record in a two hour movie. I was surprised at how dark this movie was at times.

But there are some cracks that start to show in Otto’s unflappable facade, mostly due to a persistent, new neighbor, Marisol (Mariana Trevino). She’s a Latina who he comes to admire, impressed that she immigrated to the US, learned a new language, and keeps her growing family together. She brings him home cooked meals and frequently asks for his help. Her husband Tommy, he thinks of as an idiot. There are also plenty of flashbacks of a time before Otto was like that. When his wife was alive, she gave him a purpose and reason to keep living. Plus, she was universally loved. Those scenes with the young Sonya (Rachel Keller) and Otto (Hanks’s son Truman) are charming, even when tragic.

Otto is, though, very protective of his neighborhood and while he might not have much respect for a lot of his neighbors, he can spring into action when it comes to dealing with the predatory “Dye & Merica,” a hilariously named company of vulture capitalists who have a scheme to force older people from their homes, into assisted-living, so they can seize their homes. They also have amassed way more personal information over tenants than could possibly be legal. The villain is an arrogant, sports car-driving agent played by Mike Birbiglia. The storyline with his character has a cathartic and satisfying payoff, even if it’s implausible. 

A Man Called Otto is actually a remake of the 2015 Swedish hit A Man Called Ove. I haven’t seen that movie, and I’m not eager to compare films because Otto could only be Mitch McConnell’s idea of a “feel good film” and I’m not in any rush to meet Otto’s equally grouchy, Swedish cousin Ove.

Having said that, for a movie full of pathos and melodrama, I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Tom Hanks is good throughout and there are a few hints at dark humor, including an encounter with a clown and when Marisol learns Otto’s health diagnosis. The turn away from darkness felt predictable, especially when it introduced a plot device I’ll call Chekhov’s Social Media Journalist. The resolution was nice and satisfying. Nicer and more satisfying than being Otto’s neighbor. 

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A Man Called Otto opens in Seattle theaters on January 6 and nationwide on January 13.