A Man Called Otto Review

A Man Called Otto is a remake of the Swedish comedy-drama A Man Called Ove. The American version sees Tom Hanks as the curmudgeon lead character.

Otto (Hanks) is a widower who’s forced to take early retirement. He has a reputation as being a grumpy and confrontational man who enforces his strict standards on his neighbours. However, Otto suffers from suicidal depression due to his wife’s death. Otto also reluctantly helps his new neighbours and gets involved in their lives.

A Man Called Ove was a big hit in Sweden and earned positive reviews around the globe. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. A lot of the praise was deserved because it was a humorous, touching, and heart-wrenching film. So, the remake had a lot to live up to.

The remake did manage to get some talent. Hanks doesn’t need much of an introduction, it was directed by Marc Forster who has made dramatic films like Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland, and The Kite Runner, and it was written by Oscar-nominated writer of Life of Pi. Like many remakes of acclaimed films, it raised the question of why did it need to be made?

A Man Called Otto stuck closely to the story of A Man Called Ove. There was little in the way of changes and many scenes did play out the same as they did in the Swedish original. For people who have seen the original, it was a little frustrating since it offered little new.

There were some changes. Some were done to help A Man Called Otto fit the American setting, like adding a subplot about Otto’s street being under threat of gentrification. Some of the humour was made to be broader in A Man Called Otto, like the character of Jimmy (Cameron Britten) going around the neighbourhood doing funny walks. A small change I liked in A Man Called Otto was justifying why Otto attacked a hospital clown over a coin. In the remake Otto was upset because the coin he gave the clown has emotional significance: he wasn’t just fighting over a quarter.

The biggest change in the remake was the flashbacks. The Swedish original showed Otto’s childhood with his dad and the life lessons he learned. The remake skipped this and the flashbacks started when Otto was a young man (played by Truman Hanks) and how he met Sonya (Rachel Keller). Otto says that there was nothing before Sonya and there’s nothing after her. This justified the change of focus in the flashbacks and made it more about Otto’s love and grief.

The final change of significance involved the character of Malcolm (Mack Bayda). In A Man Called Otto Malcolm took the place of two characters in the Swedish original. Malcolm was a former student of Sonya’s and a transgender youth who gets kicked out his home by his father.

Being a Hollywood film there was a slight tonal change. Some of the darker jokes were toned down, like when Otto/Ove’s neighbour interrupted one of his suicide attempts. The final act in A Man Called Otto attempted to tug on the heartstrings more blatantly than its Swedish counterpart.

A Man Called Otto had a longer runtime than A Man Called Ove. Yet the changes to the flashbacks and the subplot involving Malcolm made A Man Called Otto seem like the condensed version of the story.

A Man Called Otto was not without virtue. Tom Hanks nearly always gives a great performance, and he was wonderful as the grumpy old git with a lot of demons. He had great chemistry with Mariana Treviño who played Marisol, the pregnant Mexican woman who moves into the house opposite Otto. Otto and Marisol did perform in the same situations as Ove and Parvaneh in the original film but the pair in the remake was still watchable. Treviño did play the character differently because of her Latin passion.

On a final note, I can relate to Otto when he took in a stray cat since I took in a stray. The cat in the film did remind me of my own pet.

A Man Called Otto was a decently made film and people who haven’t seen the original will get the most mileage out of it. People who have seen A Man Called Ove will probably see the remake as perfunctory.