A MAN CALLED OTTO
(directed by Marc Forester, 2022)
*** (out of 5)
.
> This Marc Forester remake of the delightful Swedish film A MAN CALLED OVO was exactly what I feared it would be, yet, still as entertaining as I hoped.
. I remember thinking: Tom Hanks is playing this character? Tom Smiley-Face Hanks? Well, that’s a stretch. (More on why, later.) It tells the same general story as the original, only the defeated old curmudgeon is named Otto instead of Ovo, the setting is more familiar, and the ending? Not the same at all, really.
. Ovo… er: Otto is the kind of grumpy usually reserved for characters like Ebeneezer Scrooge. He is just done with life. Not figuratively, but literally. Otto is making plans to end it prematurely, when a hapless new family moves in to the housing complex he keeps a tight handle on, patrolling the grounds like a one-man H.O.A. His loud new neighbors are a clueless husband, an impossible and irrepressible pregnant wife, and two lively girls. And from Otto’s perspective, they are hopeless! He has decided this couple can’t do anything right, and resentfully intervenes when he sees them going off the rails. And worse- the indefatigable woman has the annoying habit of coming over asking for help every time he sits down to kill himself. The nerve of some people! So inconvenient. Naturally, she and her growing family get under the bitter, defeated old man’s skin in a way he never thought any human being ever would again, after the heartbreak that broke him. Now about that ending…
– – – INESCAPABLE SPOILER ALERT:
. In the original, Ovo… er: Otto appears to commit suicide- at least that’s how I interpreted it. Looking at online movie chat, I see I am in the minority. Apparently, there is some ambiguity allowing for wiggle room. There were obvious reasons to believe it was suicide. After all, we had already seen him attempt it so many times! And then there’s the not he left on his bedstand… But there were subtle reasons why it may not have been. Let’s be real- Tom Hanks can play just about anyone (ELVIS’s Colonel Tom Parker notwithstanding). He may be the most chameleon-like actor we have right now. (CLOUD ATLAS alone proved that.) Can Hanks play a congenitally grumpy man? Certainly. No sweat. But is suicide anywhere in Tom Hanks’ brand? Absolutely not. No. So it is no big surprise that mainstream Forester sanitized the ending to remove all ambiguity and make Otto’s death a clear case of heart failure. (It’s even in the note he leaves behind. Something to the effect of: “No, I did not do this myself. I just believe in being prepared.”) Have to say, the ending suffered by this lack of the original’s ambiguity.
– Not Forester’s finest moment, but A MAN CALLED OTTO never fails to entertain.
*
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