Growing up, I got the chance to spend lots of time with my grandfather.
While the memories are a bit fonder now, at the time he was very much emulating Archie Bunker and the cast members of 1993’s “Grumpy Old Men” and 1995’s “Grumpier Old Men.”
Based on that experience and the comedic moments in the trailer, I assumed “A Man Called Otto” would flow in the same vein.
Just taking the cue from a grumpy old man tired of the world around him moving forward while he stays stagnant.
But, you know, with more laughter!
Unfortunately, I found this film to be so much more depressing than that and feel like all the laugh gags were used up in the trailer.
In fact, I strongly feel misled by all of the social media chatter about it being a great movie.
Maybe we didn’t see the same movie?
A Man Called Otto is billed as a comedy-drama film directed by Marc Forster from a screenplay by David Magee.
In fact, it is the second film adaptation of the 2012 novel A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, and an American remake of the 2015 Swedish film of the same name written and directed by Hannes Holm.
The film stars Tom Hanks in the title role, with Mariana Treviño, Rachel Keller, Truman Hanks, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Christina Montoya, and Alessandra Perez.
It clocks in at 126 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving suicide attempts, and language.
Otto Anderson (Hanks), a 63-year-old widower, lives in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
After retiring from a steel company, he plans suicide, having lost his schoolteacher wife Sonya (Keller) six months previously.
During a suicide attempt by hanging, he is interrupted by his new neighbors: Marisol (Trevino), Tommy (Ruflo), and their two daughters, Abbie (Perez) and Luna (Montoya).
Otto has flashbacks to his past when he tried to enlist in the army but was unable due to having hypertrophic cardiomyopathy – an enlarged heart.
After failing the health exam, he meets Sonya on a train after returning a dropped book to her.
Otto attempts suicide again, this time via carbon monoxide poisoning in his garage.
He experiences a flashback of his first dinner with Sonya, confessing to her that he is not enlisted in the army due to his heart condition and doesn’t have a job, making Sonya kiss Otto.
Marisol disrupts Otto’s suicide attempt, asking him to take her and the kids to the hospital after Tommy fell and broke his leg using a ladder that Otto lent to him.
He reluctantly agrees after berating Marisol for not knowing how to drive herself.
Then, Otto has a flashback to his graduation with an engineering degree, when he asked Sonya to marry him.
Between the flashbacks and outside interactions forcing Otto to move through his grief, it’s painful to watch.
And the ending is not what you’d expect at all!
If you feel the need to see this on the big screen, take plenty of tissues with you.
But, I would rather cry at home than in public – if I had a chance to do this over again, that is.
