A Man Called Otto

In A Man Called Otto, there's more to Tom Hanks' reclusive grump than we thought. Here's everything we learned by the movie's end.

Otto is aware that his mega-sized heart will ultimately lead to an unexpected death, so he prepares a message to Marisol with instructions about his funeral preparations and possessions. After being gruff, Malcolm reveals that he had been one of Sonya’s students and that she had encouraged the other teachers and students to accept his transgender identity. Otto leverages his sudden fame to call the attention of a social media reporter to the scene of Anita’s forced removal, which reveals the deceptive plot. Despite Otto’s rudeness to Marisol in the beginning, he begins to open up to her more than any of his other neighbors. [Mariana Treviño](https://collider.com/a-man-called-otto-mariana-trevino-manuel-garcia-rulfo-interview/)) gets to spend more time with him, she realizes that Otto is a great family man. While Hanks gets to show more of his comedic side as Otto Anderson is pestered by his new neighbors, the film goes into more dramatic territory in the heartwarming (yet heartbreaking) final moments.

Screenwriter David Magee saw the heartache behind the widower in the story, and his need to find something to live for.

In that moment, Otto has started to find his new purpose just by allowing others back into his life and caring for them — even if they are “idiots.” But at its heart, “A Man Called Otto” is still the story of a grumpy man who has lost his sense of purpose and doesn’t want others thinking he needs their help. Virtually no one had heard of COVID when I took on the project, so I can’t take credit for being prescient, but COVID did hit as I was working on the first draft, and I saw along with everyone else how quickly loneliness and isolation can amplify social discord, driving people apart at a time when they need to connect to others the most. As I adapted Ove’s story to an American setting, I made a number of changes along the way in order to help settle him into his new home. His new neighbors received different names, backgrounds and ethnicities, and the fights that he had with his local housing council were transformed into battles with a large real estate conglomerate. Many of the people telling those stories don’t realize, though, that much of Ove’s crankiness is actually a symptom of his private heartache.

It is hard to believe that a man as curmudgeonly and grumpy as Otto Anderson can endear himself to us, especially after we meet him in “A Man Called Otto,” ...

Two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks talks about his turn playing a grumpy widower in A Man Called Otto.

WATCH: Grumpy Tom Hanks talks 'A Man Called Otto' Back to video Article content WATCH: Grumpy Tom Hanks talks 'A Man Called Otto'

Tom Hanks is often described as the James Stewart of his generation; he's managed to have a wildly successful career as an actor without being the biggest, ...

If Hanks is the reason that most audiences will be drawn to A Man Called Otto, Mariana Treviño is arguably the reason that the same audience will relish it. In this case, he does a straightforward if uninspired job of delivering an untypically sour acting turn from Hanks, and a lively one from Treviño, who is tasked with creating the emotional engagement that Otto lacks, and delivers the goods in healthy proportions. With no obvious friends or family, and mourning the recent death of his wife, Otto decides to take the easy way out and hang himself.

In August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was lynched in Mississippi during a visit to his cousins. · Director Chinonye Chukwu's harrowing drama relives this ...

She is reluctant to let her boy stray outside the city limits. Meanwhile, Hollywood royal and timeless talent Tom Hanks is stepping into the shoes of A Man Called Otto. A Man Called Ove was nominated for two Academy Awards including Best International Feature Film. He was accused of making inappropriate advances to a white female store owner. Sparing no emotional punches, at the top of the bill this week we have Till, a harrowing telling of the true story of a teenage boy’s lynching in 1955 Mississippi. Also released this week, our home-grown ‘Favourite’ Olivia Colman is leading the charge in Sam Mendes’ valentine to cinemagoing, Empire Of Light. Period detail is impeccable. 2022 packed a monumental cinematic punch, with hard-hitting gems like Oliver Hermanus’s Living and black comedy beauties such as The Banshees of Inisherin shining as the jewels in its crown. Released: January 6 (UK & Ireland) The question is, can 2023 possibly hope to fill the big hefty boots that 2022 has left behind? Welcome to 2023 folks – it looks to be a good ‘un. Based on the first offerings of the year – yes, ladies and gentlemen, yes it can.

Sentimental tales about grumpy old men and American decline have, until recently, typically been the domain of Clint Eastwood.

(“Sounds like Dying America, which it is,” says Otto.) But “A Man Called Otto” is less after realism than it is a modern-day fable, with shades of Scrooge and the Grinch. "A Man Called Otto,” a Sony Pictures release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for mature thematic material involving suicide attempts, and language. Rita Wilson, his wife, is a producer and is heard singing a song in the film. Up and down the street are all the people the freshly retired Otto barely tolerates: friends-turned-enemies (Peter Lawson Jones, Juanita Jennings), a friendly exerciser (a delightful Cameron Britton), a transgender paper deliverer and former student of Otto's wife (Mack Bayda). How "A Man Called Otto” unfolds won't surprise anyone, but it does the trick for a little post-holidays heart-warming. In the original, Rolf Lassgård richly inhabited the role of Ove, a curmudgeonly widower — a Forrest Grump —whose suicide attempts are foiled by needy neighbors and, ultimately, his grudging, sincere devotion to them.

Tom Hanks-starring 'A Man Called Otto', 'Women Talking' and 'Corsage' Expand.

It took Best Film at the London Film Festival and was nominated for best international feature for the Gotham Award (Audrey Diwan’s Happening won) and the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Women Talking is based on the book by Miriam Toews with Brad Pitt as an executive producer. Hanks plays Otto Anderson, a grump who no longer sees purpose in his life following the loss of his wife. [John Swab](https://deadline.com/tag/john-swab/) (Ida Red), in Los Angeles (Lumiere Music Hall), Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Tulsa and Tampa, and on digital platforms. The remake of a Swedish film based on a bestselling novel is playing well with audiences, with a 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes (70% with critics). The film grossed $75k for the four-day New Year’s holiday weekend. debut at the New York Film Festival, is also Mubi Go’s Film of the Week, which always helps grosses. [Olivia Luccardi](https://deadline.com/tag/olivia-luccardi/) stars as Remy, a seemingly naive and devout young woman cast out from her religious cult. “Right now, people are going to one movie only,” said the executive – that’s Avatar: The Way Of Water. A close-knit family of peach farmers suddenly faces eviction when new plans arise to install solar panels and cut down trees. “The marketplace needs to listen to what the people are telling them,” said one distribution executive. With rare exceptions, audiences are failing to embrace indie titles with the gusto they’ve shown in the past.

A Man Called Otto is the new Tom Hanks film directed by Marc Forster and costarring Marianna Treviño. Hanks plays an irascible and grumpy widower who ...