No Mean Feat
Rejoice, Tom Hanks fans. The world’s favourite uncle returns to his nice guy roots after toying with dickery in ‘Elvis’. Everyone else… Brace!
A Man Called Otto
Director: Marc Forster • Writer: David Magee, based on the film A Man Called Ove by Hannes Holm, and book by Fredrik Backman
Starring: Tom Hanks, Mariana Treviño, Rachel Keller, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Truman Hanks, Juanita Jennings, Peter Lawson Jones, Mack Bayda
USA • 2hrs 6mins
Opens Hong Kong January 26 • IIB
Grade: A… and F
Is that dual grade up there a massive cheat? You’re damned right it is, because A Man Called Otto is so obviously manipulative and aggressively sentimental in its construction that it demands simultaneous adoration and revulsion. The film is a riot of piqued emotionalism, such an atrocity of sweetness there is no way to go but to extremes. Admittedly, plenty of us love an old-fashioned, redemptive weepie that proves our better angels exist, and those people are going to happily burrow into the warm blanket Otto offers. And a quick glance at news headlines justifies seeking out just such a blanket. But then there are cranks, ironically like Otto, whose hackles rise at the mere mention of Hollywood-contrived personal betterment, usually thanks the to “earthy” humanity of [fill in the blank country, usually of brown people] neighbours and adorable tykes. That’s a valid bugbear too, and that’s what makes giving Otto a straight grade so fundamentally unfair. Is it poorly made? Not even close. Is it effective in its “niceness”? Yes. Yes it is. Is it a luscious slab of feel-good escapism? Oh hell, yeah. And that kind of entertainment elicits two distinct responses. We must each judge for ourselves which side of the fence we fall on. Either way, you’ve been warned.
Hanks is never that big a dick
A Man Called Otto is a nearly note-for-note rehash of the Swedish film A Man Called Ove, based on the Swedish novel. In the Swedish version, Ove is considerably more racist and angrier at “the system”, but this is Tom Hanks so those risks are dialled way, way down. A day after he’s pushed out of his job, Otto Anderson (Hanks) makes plans to be with his wife Sonya (Rachel Keller), who died six months earlier. He’s rudely interrupted in his suicide attempt by Marisol (Mariana Treviño, trying really hard) and her klutzy husband Tommy (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo). Tommy’s having trouble parking the U-Haul, so Otto helps him out, purely to make the interruption go away. Given another day on Earth, Otto goes back to his business of getting up in everyone else’s. In between we get dribs and drabs of his tragic backstory during visits to his wife’s grave, and Marisol, Tommy and their allegedly adorable tykes, Luna and Abby (Christiana Montoya and Alessandra Perez) imposing themselves on the still-grieving Otto.
Now, this is where you either let it go and allow yourself to accept the suspension of disbelief films like this demand, or you lose your shit wondering how anyone is supposed to think pushing yourself into an angry man’s home is okay. Or dumping your children on a neighbour who doesn’t want to engage. Or relentlessly greeting him on the street after months of “Piss off!” This is all disrespectful and potentially dangerous. It’s meant to be charming, and indeed for some of us, it’s cute. Have at it.
Marc Forster is one of those directors committed to aggressively fighting auteur theory; a hired gun often saddled with a hot mess (World War Z, Quantum of Solace) or picked specifically because his lack of distinct stylistic tics makes him the ideal soldier. He handles sentimentalism deftly (Finding Neverland, Christopher Robin) and he’s adept enough with filmmaking fundamentals that if handed a decent script at the very least he won’t cock it up (Stranger than Fiction, he directed Halle Berry to an Oscar in Monster’s Ball). And for a film as inoffensive as A Man Called Otto, he’s a good choice. David Magee’s adaptation ensures Hanks never comes off as too prickly as he goes about reclaiming his humanity and place in the community, and gives him plenty of redemption opps: one of Sonya’s former students finds a haven with Otto after getting turfed for being trans; a long, happy history with a sick former friend inspires him to make amends and save his home, this kind of Hanksian thing. Actor and material are such a perfect match it’s not hard to imagine author Fredrik Backman being inspired by his persona. For his part Forster follows the brief to the letter and steers Otto towards a saccharine happy ending, straight down the middle of the road. Kind of halfway between “A” and “F”. — DEK