
This doesn’t work but kudos for going against type. The only thing remotely interesting about this is Forster’s decision to cast dweeby, unassuming comedian Mike Birbiglia as the villain. In addition to flashbacks to Otto’s younger, happier days, there’s a plot involving an encroaching condominium development and how malicious real estate foes can only be vanquished if everyone works together. Rest assured, there’s plenty of storyline and conflict to go around. A false note that avoids what could be an interesting conflict. More about politics than about storyline. This feels generously woke given Otto’s reaction to literally everyone else. While Otto is constantly annoyed by how his paper is indiscriminately flung, he takes an immediately sympathetic view towards Malcolm’s struggles. One who sticks out is Malcolm (Mack Bayda), a transgender youth who delivers the local paper. There are other characters who chip away at Otto’s rough exterior. How can he end it all when “dumb” Marisol needs help getting her driver’s license? Otto, hardwired to find solutions to any problem, sees Marisol as a project before seeing her as a friend. She needs help with the house and her kids. In these stories, it is always the character from outside who helps the main character find their inner goodness. Marisol (Mariana Treviño) is a recent transplant to the neighborhood who inserts herself. Otto’s fate will be outside his own hands. More: Despite relevant ideas, 'White Noise' offers little more than static The film’s opening scene in a hardware store initially feels like something out of a bad sitcom, but darkens moments later when we learn why Otto needs precisely five feet of rope.
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There’s a genuine mental health crisis going on with our main character, triggered by a series of life changes. He is not simply grumpy, which is where “Otto” distinguishes itself from other films of its ilk. He suffers fools but only so he can prove they are “idiots,” as he constantly mumbles to no one in particular. He is precise and methodical, quite like his chosen profession of engineering demands. Otto too is aggressive, but not quirky or pleasant. Otto lives in a tightly-hewed Pennsylvania neighborhood where everyone around him is aggressively, quirkily pleasant.

So here we are at the multiplexes.Īlthough the beats of this story predate “Ove.” It’s the redemption tale of the “get off my lawn” guy. Clearly something no one outside the arthouse crowd could tolerate. Which means there were subtitles and a lead actor who wasn’t Tom Hanks. “Otto” is the retelling of the popular book club pick “A Man Called Ove,” adapted back in 2015. He does, and will draw an audience who might otherwise shrug their shoulders. No matter how contrived and convoluted this new telling of an old story is, involving a curmudgeon rediscovering his humanity, the real question is whether Tom Hanks - in the titular role - makes the film worth seeing. Director Marc Forster’s “A Man Called Otto” is a test of star power.
