This past calendar year, professionally speaking, has not worked out well for Tom Hanks. He appeared in three films (“Elvis,” “Pinocchio,” and now “A Man Called Otto”), and none of them come close to matching his glory days of the 1990s or early 2000s (or even his post “Bosom Buddies” 1980s upstart phase).
His uncharacteristically widely off-the-mark rendition of Col. Tom Parker in “Elvis” was (in the opinion of many, myself included) the biggest reason preventing that film from achieving greatness. The disaster that was “Pinocchio,” equally despised by critics and audiences, marked a career low for Hanks.
Mr. Busybody
A recent widower, Otto is angry at the world, something everyone knows yet he steadfastly denies. He can’t understand why five feet of rope costs more than six. He reorganizes items incorrectly placed in the community recycle bins. He berates his soon-to-be-ex-fellow-employees for throwing him a surprise (forced) retirement party. He chastises neighbors over their failure to clean up after their pets and barks at illegally parked delivery truck drivers.Otto might as well be named Karen.
Otto meets his match (although he doesn’t realize it at the time) in the form of Marisol (Mariana Treviño), a pregnant woman and mother of two irresistibly charming girls who attempts to counter his gruff exterior with gifts of food—and she largely succeeds.
Not Intimidated
Marisol crushes Otto with kindness with just the slightest whiff of a hothouse flower, and he discovers that he cannot summarily insult or dress her down. He oh-so-slowly begins to respect her, although she regularly (and unknowingly) thwarts his many attempts at committing suicide.
This is the part of the review where I reveal (without so much spoiling) that Otto is never successful at killing himself. One can’t make a movie starring Hanks, released at year’s end, where his character offs himself. It’s altogether forbidden.
The mere SUGGESTION that the Hanks character TRIES to kill himself multiple times is the MacGuffin; it’s the distraction that tries to make the film deeper and more moving than it is.
Otto will never succeed in his mission because that would crush the message of this highly manipulative exercise. Displaying overtly negative human behavior for the sole sake of extending narrative disbelief will work for some artsy types, but not the target demographic (Mr. and Mrs. 50-plus Middle America).
To their credit, director Marc Forster and screenwriter David Magee do their level best at peeling away the storytelling onion at as slow a pace as possible. The complete story of Otto’s deceased wife, Sonya (Rachel Keller), isn’t fully revealed until late in the third act, and it goes far in explaining why Otto is so attached to a dog-eared paperback and one particular 25-cent piece.
No Surprises Here
Sorely missing from “Otto” is the element of surprise. Despite its limited appeal (a foreign language film with subtitles) “Ove” was nonetheless a welcomed, out-of-left-field, oddball sleeper.What is most perplexing about the marketing of the movie, from an “inside baseball” industry perspective, is its suspicious lack of press screenings prior to year-end critics’ associations deadlines, most of which are on or near the final week of November.
Despite being “long in the tooth” as it were, Hanks is still a bankable draw and, although his performance here is formulaically endearing, it’s bewildering why the studio didn’t at the least push him, possibly Treviño, and the film itself for awards consideration.
For those who never saw “Ove” (and that’s, well, almost everyone), “Otto” will dutifully suffice. It’s not steak but neither is it Hamburger Helper. There are far worse ways to spend two-plus hours of your life.
