A Man Called Otto, directed by Marc Forster and adapted from the novel A Man Called Ove, portrays a heartwarming story of a grumpy older man and his story of meeting new, unlikely friends.
The film begins with Otto (Tom Hanks) and his not-so-good day, though this is every day for him. This irritable man seems to not enjoy life in the slightest. Things such as parking violations and newspapers thrown on his lawn seem to get the best of him and make things worse. It looks like Otto has a grey cloud following him throughout his life, yet the people around him think quite the opposite.
When new neighbors move in across the street, Otto makes some unlikely friends in Marisol (Mariana Treviño) and her family. Time and time again, Marisol persists in trying to gain Otto’s friendship, along with a few fellow neighbors. She brings housewarming gifts to introduce herself into his life, though Otto is not looking for new friends.
Through flashbacks, the audience is taken through the story of why Otto feels and acts the way he does. The flashbacks worked to connect the audience to the character well, but it was almost as if the flashbacks were a completely different life. Nevertheless, it gave us a bit of comic relief and provided an insight into how our main character turned out the way he was, which I found amusing.
Otto has a lousy attitude, but every other character wants to befriend him. The side characters were fun to watch and made each scene enjoyable with their different personalities. I enjoyed the side character’s other quirks, which added some fun. While I felt that the acting in this film was quite good, I would have liked the characters to be more developed and see more of the background of the side characters, especially since they each had a good story to tell. I hadn’t heard of or recognized any of the actors except Tom Hanks, but to my surprise, they each performed well. The casting was done well, and each actor fit their role, no matter how mundane they were to the overall film. Each character seemed to pop up repeatedly, giving it some consistency, but I would have liked to go deeper into some of their lives. This could have helped break things up and allowed the audience to understand the people around him better.
I felt that the soundtrack was quite impressive and fit each scene well. Also, they filled the background with sounds and simple tunes to not distract the audience. Each emotion portrayed in the film seemed to shine through with the music playing in the scene. From happy to sad, a wide range of background music went with the settings.
Also, the lighting was excellent throughout as well. They had the flashbacks be so warm-toned because they were happier, contrasted with the sadder scenes, which were darker and filled with more shadows. It felt like it had a refreshing meaning. In the film, the weather also connected to what was happening in the scene, which was a nice touch to the feeling and vibe. Same with the music, the lighting, and the weather brought together the targeted emotion of the audience and characters.
I feel like this movie was a bit depressing for my liking. When I watch a movie, I want to be transported into their world, and though this message was excellent, the whole storyline was based on a tragic life. So I felt sad throughout the movie and pity too.
I didn’t see where it was going when I was watching it. I understood that an overall purpose would appear at the end, but watching the journey was challenging. It just didn’t grab my attention as other films have. The more I watched, the more I got attached to the storyline; I still feel like I expected more from a new motion picture coming was something to be lacking in the film.
Overall, this movie seemed like it tried to be good but ultimately wasn’t grabbing my attention enough. The message was nice, but it took a while to get to it. This film is nothing to rave about and one that I wouldn’t recommend if you are sad or going through a rough time. After watching this, I could see how this could also trigger many people. I think that this movie could be replaced by watching something a little less depressing.
My score is 1.5 out of 5 stars.
Leave a Comment