Movie Review: 'A Man Called Otto' is Tom Hanks at His Best

A Man Called Otto (2023)

Directed by Marc Forster

Written by David Magee

Starring Tom Hanks, Mariana Trevino, Rachel Keller, Truman Hanks, Manuel Garcia Rulfo

Release Date January 6th, 2023

Published January 6th, 2023

A Man Called Otto hits an emotional sweet spot for me. It made me cry in both sadness and in joy. This is a movie I was incredibly skeptical about. The trailer was an irritation, it made Tom Hanks into some kind of Archie Bunker character in a modern sitcom. Thankfully, that's not what A Man Called Otto really is. Instead, the film, directed by the brilliant Marc Forster, is a study of grief, aging and loss tinged with romance, sentimentality and a sense of humor. That sense of humor starts with casting purportedly the nicest man in Hollywood, Tom Hanks, as a grouchy curmudgeon who treats others with a deep and abiding contempt.

Tom Hanks is Otto Anderson and six months ago, his beloved wife, Sonya, passed away. His grief has turned Otto into a depressive hermit who lives only by the routine of punishing minor offenses committed by his neighbors in a tiny gated community. Outside of that, he's simply waiting to die. Well, actually, he's not waiting. One of the first things we see Otto doing is gathering the materials needed to hang himself. That's when fate intervenes in the form of new neighbors, one of whom, Marisol (Mariana Trevino), seems intent on making Otto her friend.

There is a strangely magical quality to A Man Called Otto in how fate constantly conspires to interrupt Otto's attempts at killing himself. It's comical how many times Otto comes close to ending his life only to have someone intervene at the last moment, unwittingly causing Otto stick around. And that's the arc, Otto battling with a universe that seems intent on keeping him alive regardless of his desire to go to the afterlife to be with his wife. One of those intervening to keep Otto around is a homeless cat who takes to Otto and may or may not be magical manifestation of his late wife.

That's purely my interpretation of A Man Called Otto. Most other critics seem to be treating the film as a straightforward story about a jerk who hates everyone and is trying to kill himself. Me, I see a magical story about fate and a man eager to defy the forces of good around him. I found that to be a very sweet and funny story, dark, yes, but only in the sense that the character is in a dark place emotionally and the light seems to actively try to find him. Your mileage will vary on whether you buy into my take on the movie or decide to take it merely at face value.

Mariana Trevino is a complete delight. Her Marisol is a ball of joy bounding into Otto's life unaware of his troubles and yet determined to save him all the same. She's Magic Pixie Dream Best Friend, a sweetheart bursting with empathy and cheer. Even in the moments where Otto inflicts some genuine hurt on her via his bad attitude, she always bounces back and her resilience is inspired. In the hands of a lesser performer, the character of Marisol could just be a function to move the plot but in the hands of Mariana Trevino, the character takes on wonderful dimensions as she draws Otto toward revealing his pain and beginning to heal.

The direction of A Man Called Otto by the brilliant Marc Forster employs lovely flashbacks to explain Otto's pain. Truman Hanks, Tom's son, plays young Otto in a series of elegant flashbacks to the unlikely love story of Otto and Sonya, played the wonderful Rachel Keller. Admittedly, Otto's remembrances of his late wife and their meet cute, first date, and marriage, are a little forced, they are delivered only to the audience and are thus only motivated by the screenplay. That said, I didn't mind because the flashbacks are lovely and they serve to explain Otto's soul deep agony.

Tom Hanks is wonderful. The Tom Hanks qualities he brings to Otto are needed for him to be redeemed by the end of the story. Otto could be irredeemable if the character were played by a less lovable actor. Hanks' cache with us, the audience, gives Otto the necessary leeway to be bad, to be a jerk, to be a depressed hermit. Hanks' presence is the reassurance we need to know that this story is going somewhere, a place where Otto isn't such a bad guy. It's an effortlessly graceful performance by Hanks who crafts a complex study of a conflicted man, a grief stricken lover, and a man who secretly desires to be a father figure and a force for good in the world.

A Man Called Otto surprised me. I went in thinking that the movie would be like a bad sitcom that happened to star one of the best actors in all of Hollywood. Instead, what I found was a complicated, messy, sweet and romantic story about the universe conspiring to make a sad widower smile again. If that's not to your taste as a movie, then A Man Called Otto will not be for you. It was however, entirely for me. I loved the direction, I loved the performances, especially Mariana Trevino, and Tom Hanks remains an incomparably enjoyable actor.

A Man Called Otto taps into that Hanks as modern Jimmy Stewart vibe. The magical element that, I admit, I am bringing to the movie, reminded me of Stewart in It's A Wonderful Life. Instead of an angel showing a man what the world would be without him, we have a spunky mother of three teaching a sad widower that there is still life in the world for him. Like seeing Stewart at his lowest, pondering the end of his life, seeing Tom Hanks thinking of ending his life earns our care and sympathy immediately. Regardless of Otto's ugly qualities, we can't help but root for the forces of the universe conspiring to keep him alive. I love that idea and the execution of that idea in A Man Called Otto simply worked on me.

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