A MAN CALLED OTTO Friday, 6th October 2023

 A memorable performance from Tom Hanks, backed by a crackling good supporting cast.

A Man Called Otto is a well-crafted and an emotionally involving remake of a book and film about a widowed old grump who begins to grow and change after experiencing some major life setbacks.  It's a small gem of  wry humour and human insight.

Otto is that curmudgeonly neighbour who never just lets things go, whether he’s barking at a woman for letting her dog urinate on his lawn, chastising a neighbor for his too-tight exercise outfit, yelling at a delivery truck driver for unauthorized parking or telling a stray cat to leave him alone. Recently forced out of his managerial engineering position and now retired, Otto has nothing but time on his hands, and he spends much of that time patrolling his gated neighborhood in an unnamed Rust Belt town in suburban America, growling about bicycles that aren’t parked in the rack, garbage that hasn’t been properly sorted into the recycling bin, etc., etc.

However his neighbours work around him with quiet and consistent humanity to drag the reluctant Otto back into life.  Perhaps they can detect the basic decency of Otto.

A Man Called Otto is a sad/happy, heart-warming dramedy.
 

Directed by the versatile Marc Forster (“Finding Neverland,” “World War Z”).