In a day and age when far too many movie trailers give away the entire movie, it is refreshing when a well-marketed one gives us just a hint to grab our interest. For me, I’ll start a preview. The second I deem a movie worth seeing, I stop watching the trailer. It’s a little more complicated when I’m in the movie theater. I don’t want to be ‘that guy’ who closes his eyes and plugs his years. However, with the runtime of movies getting longer and longer and the ability to choose seats ahead, I often don’t arrive at my seat until right before the movie starts. I got the basic jest of Marc Forster’s (World War Z, The Kite Runner) A Man Called Otto. It looked like a light-hearted comedy about a disgruntled older man named Otto (Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips, Bridge of Spies) who, throughout the movie, is slowly won over by the young family that has moved into his neighborhood. And while that is mostly true, this movie is far more profound and poignant than I was prepared to experience.
Foster does layer his film thick with sentimentalism. Foster is a director who explores different genres with films ranging from The Kite Runner to World War Z, Christopher Robin to Disconnect, and Finding Neverland to Monster’s Ball. A Man Called Otto is his first dramedy since the critically and audience-acclaimed but underseen Stranger Than Fiction. Like that movie, he succeeds with this one, though there is a discrepancy between lukewarm Rotten Tomatoes critics’ scores (70%) and audience scores (97%). As I near the end of the 2022-released movies I still need to see, my Top 10 of the Year was set. But then I watched The Inspection and A Man Called Otto in two days, two movies that likely had two of those spots.
For each miss that Hanks has had in the past decade (Pinocchio, Finch, The Circle, Inferno, Ithaca, Cloud Atlas, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close), he bounces back with performances that remind us why he is still the most talented working actor in Hollywood (News of the World, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, The Post, Sully, Bridge of Spies, Saving Mr. Banks, Captain Phillips). In particular, News of the World is one of the most, perhaps the most, underrated to be released to theaters during the first 24+ months since the start of COVID-19, and Hanks thrived. Coming off of a poorly received Pinnochio and mixed reviews for his performance in Elvis, Hanks needed a bounce-back film. A Man Called Otto was that and so much more. Hanks is still an actor who needs top billing. While he can be a supporting actor, that’s not where his bread and butter is yet.
Hanks’ Otto felt like a combination of some of his past roles. Most will draw a comparison to Forrest Gump, if nothing else, because of his inability to read social cues, his mostly even-keel temperament, and what feels like extended periods of introspection. But he draws much on his Chuck Noland character in Cast Away and his Scott Turner character in Turner and Hooch. However, Hanks isn’t the only star of A Man Called Otto.
Otto can’t escape the constant visits from his new neighbors, Marisol (Mariana Treviño) in a breakout performance as his upbeat, take no-crap from-others, immigrant from Mexican who moved to the suburban midwest with her clumsy, good-natured husband, Tommy (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo – Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Widows) who takes second fiddle to Marisol, and their two young, irresistible daughters (with a third child on the way). Relative newcomer Mack Bayda gives a memorable performance as young Malcolm, a transgender male former student of his wife, Sonya (Sonya (Rachel Keller), who wins Otto over quickly by telling him no how much she accepted him when no one else did. There are also likable neighbors, including fitness-obsessed Jimmy (Cameron Britton), Otto’s old friend, turned friendly nemesis Rueben (Peter Lawson Jones), and his sweet wife Anita (Juanita Jennings). Together, these characters form a loving community and accept Otto despite how miserable he has become.
There is also a beautiful back story of Otto and the infant stages of his relationship with Sonya some 30+ years ago. As I frequently say, I love movies that successfully incorporate flashbacks. The flashbacks here were fairly short (perhaps too short, though there were several of them). Sonya brought out the best in Otto. His exuberance for living life starkly contrasted with the man he had become. Unfortunately, most flashbacks were from early in their relationship. I would have loved to have seen more as their lives progressed together. Those got left on the cutting room floor, or maybe that was never Foster’s intention. In either case, I desired more, as this would have further defined the jovial, optimistic younger Otto to the too-easily irritated man he had become. His intolerance isn’t towards all. It is reserved for those who aren’t willing to help others or judge and condemn people who aren’t like them. However, that doesn’t keep him from calling even those he seems not to mind as much as others’ idiots.’
With all of that said, A Man Called Otto affected me in a way that I never expected. Otto’s conversation with Marisol near the end ties the loose strings together and tightens his budding friendship and admiration for him. The innate is that she has developed towards him, despite how rude and insensitive he can sometimes be.
Plot 8/10 (while not predictable and certainly my kind of story, there wasn’t much that felt unique…and the tale unapologetically goes after those heartstrings pretty hard…however, I had no idea that this movie could have or would have taken me to the place it took me)
Character Development 9/10 (In his best performance since 2016’s Sully, Hanks became Otto, and the transformation of the character was brilliant)
Character Chemistry 9/10 (Sonya’s ability to bring colors to Otto’s grey past existence was surpassed by Marisol’s ability to do the same in the present)
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing 8/10 (I was never quite sure exactly where we were regarding a timeline… the flashbacks were done well. However, Foster heavily concentrated the flashbacks on a couple of singular periods, whereas I would have enjoyed seeing how the flashbacks between Otto and Sonya got us closer to the present day)
Cinematography 8/10
Sound 10/10 (Kate Bush’s This Woman’s Work was on point, and Thomas Newman’s score was as perfect as always)
Hook and Reel 9.5/10 (don’t let the trailers fool…as they did me…appearances can be deceiving)
Universal Relevance 9.5/10 (loss…anger…unprocessed emotions leading us towards a desire to stir our course of action)
88%
Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie
- Forrest Gump
- Cast Away
- About Schmidt
- Dan In Real Life
- Turner and Hooch