A Man Called Otto

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Every once in a while, a movie comes along with a sort of "slice of life" aspect to it. The film is simple, tells a story about a person's "every day", and shows us a sort of otherwise mundane situation as the story unfolds. The idea is that the character focused on could be someone you know (at least as far as personality goes). And yes, some may define it differently, but it does feel like something of a loose category. In this case, we get the story of 63-year-old Otto Anderson (Tom Hanks); a grumpy widower, residing in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Throughout the unfolding of the film, we learn that Otto is stubborn, particular, and has a "take-no-crap" attitude. This is the old guy who says things like "kids these days" and "whatever happened to the times when?" Between losing his wife, dealing with people he considers jerks and jackasses every day, and suffering from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, he's ready to end his life. On his first attempt, however, he is interrupted by new neighbours, Marisol (Mariana Treviño), her husband, Tommy (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and their two daughters, Abbie (Alessandra Perez) and Luna (Christiana Montoya), who he reluctantly befriends; namely Marisol.

As one may very well be able to predict from the get-go, Marisol, along with several other neighbours, help show Otto some reasons to keep living, and help him to understand how valued he is as a person in the neighbourhood. It seems that Otto has all the answers, plain and obvious to himself, but everyone around him needs his help with various things. A lot of that is where the comedy is, but there's a lot of dramatic emphasis on Otto's past with his one, true love, Sonya (Rachel Keller), as we see the story of their relationship unfold, which shows us why he is how he is; past Otto played by Truman Hanks, Tom's real-life son.

Otto has something of a relationship with everyone in the neighbourhood, and for the most part, these involve not-so-friendly "hellos" to locals who know him by name. But there's also a story of a falling out Otto had with a best friend and neighbour named Reuben (Peter Lawson Jones), who suffered a stroke one day, and is taken care of by his wife, Anita (Juanita Jennings) and neighbour Jimmy (Cameron Britton). The reason for their falling out? I won't spoil it here, but it does provide a good laugh for the audience. But unfortunately Reuben's home is about to be repossessed, so Otto has a bit of mixed feelings on his friendship.

What I liked about this story is basically what the film wanted me to like, and that's that amid the dark comedy situations throughout the film, it also has a big, big heart, and gives us examples of Otto not being such a bad guy after all. So much of the humor here comes from Otto's suicide attempts being interrupted because he actually gives a damn. Furthermore we have examples like his transgender teenage neighbour, Malcolm (Mack Bayda) who Otto accepts, as opposed to his Dad. With some situations like this, we could see it as something of a "woke" movie, but it does things subtly as they'd be in reality instead of making it the film's top priority.

​If I was to compare this film to anything, it would be some kind of blend of 'Gran Torino', 'Up' and basically whatever other movie features a recluse who needs their neighbours more than they think. It is a good look at life today as well and does a good job of showing both sides of the coin. You get why Otto is so upset and annoyed by everyday people he considers idiots, but you may also look at these so-called "idiots" and think "well... I've done that before". But the film's big final message IS a positive one, even if the ending isn't necessarily a happy one. I won't say what happens, but it is something that hit me in the feels.

All in all, I really enjoyed this one despite it getting quite a few mixed reviews. It's very hard not to like Tom Hanks in general, but I really liked him in this role, as he finally shows a dark and grouchy side to himself. There's a part of you that has to learn to like him here as opposed to just liking him from the get-go as usual. My only real criticism is that this kind of thing has been done time and time again. Odds are, we've all seen the movie about the recluse that needs a life-lesson or two, but also helps in their own way. But while not entirely original, I'd say its worth looking at. If nothing else, there's a genuine human aspect to this, and after three damn years of Covid, it's not a bad thing to snap us back to reality with (although hopefully, most of us are there by now).

​3/5

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