Film Review: A Man Called Otto

Tom Hanks is starting to get typecast. Last year we saw him as Col. Tom Parker, Elvis Presley’s aging, possibly demented manager. Now he goes to another extreme, playing the title character in “A Man Called Otto.”

Adapted from the 2015 Swedish film (which was, itself, adapted from a novel), Hanks plays a grumpy old geezer who has given up on life and just wants to end it. He moves to an apartment building where he intends to do just that, but runs into some obstacles. 

Not the least of the obstacles are his neighbors, notably the friendly, determined-to-be-helpful Marisol (Mariana Treviño). A fine cook, she’s the kind of friend we’d all love to have. But Otto finds her (and everyone else) intrusive.

Otto spends a lot of time yelling at everyone in sight, telling them they’re wrong or stupid or useless. Just the kind of guy everybody wants to avoid.

There are other neighbors as well, like Jimmy (Cameron Britton), built like a Mac truck and often out on the street “getting his exercise). And the black lady Anta (Juanita Jennings), taking care of aged husband Reuben (Peter Lawson Jones), who seems to be in need of a nursing home.

But the real other star of the show is a furry black homeless cat that seems to be everywhere Otto looks. He scowls at the feline too.

But as time goes on, they all get used to each other, and we see in flashbacks what brought Otto to his anti-everything existence. 

Hanks seems to be having a wonderful time in this role, and the structure of the plot will eventually lead viewers to enjoy it as well. If it seems a bit longer than necessary, well, that’s the way Hanks viewed his life at the beginning.