What a remarkable career the one and only Tom Hanks has led. He stood up for every toy in need across four Toy Story films, he fearlessly ensured the safe return of James Francis Ryan in Saving Private Ryan, he spearheaded a timeless odyssey through American history in Forrest Gump, and he endured the thankless task of shouldering Colonel Tom Parker’s prosthetics in Elvis.
Next, he’ll be rejoining his Forrest Gump family for the cinematic swing of a lifetime in Robert Zemeckis’ Here, which hits theaters Nov. 1. For now, though, one of the most endearing roles of Hanks’ career is taking center-stage at the behest of Netflix.
Per FlixPatrol, this day of Oct. 8 has seen A Man Called Otto — a 2022 dramedy and a remake of Hannes Holm’s 2015 Swedish film A Man Called Ove — claim a spot on the streaming podium as the second-most watched film on Netflix in Canada, leapfrogging the likes of M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass, Netflix original sequel film The Platform 2, Illumination sugar-rush Minions: The Rise of Gru, and recent Top 10 dropout Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. It’s not quite the same honor as A Man Called Ove‘s Academy Award nomination, but both are comparable to the honor of giving A Man Called Otto a watch.
Hanks stars as the eponymous Otto, an elderly curmudgeon grieving the recent death of his wife Sonya, and who endeavors to commit suicide in hopes of rejoining her. His orderly principles and recent loneliness manifest a rather sour mood when confronted with those around him, but when new neighbors Marisol (Mariana Treviño) and Tommy (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) move into the house across the street, Otto finds himself (and his heart) getting more involved with the folks in his neighborhood than he had planned.
The film doesn’t always thread the needle with its emotional beats, but it does so often enough to stitch itself onto any heart that lets it, and that’s due largely in part to the richness of the film’s characters. Otto’s not simply a grumpy old man that needs to learn how to smile; he’s a man-out-of-time sort who values honesty and respect for both himself and the world that he shares with others, and he’s not afraid to drop pleasantries for the sake of either. Nevertheless, he’s also someone who’s allowing his very understandable grief to consume his life when there are so many beautiful moments he still needs to experience. Enter Marisol, who refuses to define Otto by his attitude and instead by his humanity, all while going about life with an animated-but-sincere bubbliness that both appeals to said humanity and contrasts said attitude in all the right ways.
All the while, we’re offered flashbacks into Otto’s life with his wife Sonya, and how they were brought together because of the very same values that Otto maintains to this day, and those that Sonya held until the day she died, which Otto misses dearly. A Man Called Otto, then, is a most fantastic love story; that of a husband and wife, of a widower and his neighbors, of people with people, and of people with life. Excellent choice, Canada.