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A man called otto (2022)
A man called otto (2022)
2022 | Comedy
7
7.5 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Has Over-Sized Heart
They sure don’t make films like this anymore. A character study/drama featuring an “A-List” Star about a curmudgeon who finds that there is more to life than to hide from it. It’s the type of subject matter that has been seen over and over again, but this one hits differently.

It has an over-sized heart.

Based on the Swedish novel (and film) A MAN CALLED OVE…OTTO (played by Tom Hanks) is a recent Widower, who is forcibly retired and has given up on life. The question of the film is whether Otto can find a reason to keep on living.

These types of films can be over-melodramatic and saccharine, but in the capable hands of veteran Director Marc Forster (FINDING NEVERLAND) and the performance of Hanks (who shows that he still has his fastball) this film will touch your heart…if you open your heart up enough to receive it.

Foster has created a world where Otto has sealed himself off from the world by keeping a sharp eye on the perimeters of his row-housing. With an Engineering background, and a keen eye for detail, Otto keeps his world neat and orderly. However, it becomes clear that what Otto is really doing is retreating into this world - and further into himself - until a new neighbor (and a stray cat) starts pulling Otto out his cocoon.

Hanks, as mentioned above, is wonderful as the curmudgeonly Otto. It helps that Hanks’ inherit charm shines through during the early, grumpy, despondant portions of Otto’s existence. Despite what one is seeing on the surface, the audience instantly starts to root for Otto, more than likely due to the audience goodwill that Hanks has built up over his long and lusterous career.

Newcomer (at least to the BankofMarquis) Mariana Trevino is just as strong and caring as the new neighbor that starts breaking through the exterior of Otto. It is important for a film of this sort to have someone just as strong (but not overpowering) as the lead performer to serve as a balance. This Trevino (and the rest of the supporting cast) do very, very well.

Credit for this has to go to Director Forster who surehandedly steers the course of this film, threading the needle effectively on the edge of emotional heft and heart without falling into caricature and melodrama.

It is a charming, effective, quiet film that surprised the BankofMarquis with the amount of earnest heart imbedded within. If you are looking for a film that will charm you and warm your insides, look no further than A MAN CALLED OTTO.

Letter Grade: A-

8 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
  
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"I think it was Mike [Harding] from Touch who first introduced this to me. He said, 'You'll love it, and it's an unbelievable price' which is quite a killer combination if you like collecting things. I bought it and he's absolutely right. It's a master: there's no ways about it, you're hearing virtuosity, ensemble playing to the highest degree. It knows itself inside-out, which means you get this feeling of how it stretches and breathes. Basically if I'm wanting to listen to something from it I close my eyes, fumble around and take one of the six discs out so it's a surprise. Otherwise you can find something for the morning, a raga, blah blah blah. But these are just the most extraordinary devotional love songs. It's from a tradition which has been going on for a very very long time. It's not a part-time job at all; these are people who are dedicated. It's fantastic. I think it's truly inspiring in the sense that it's through listening to that that I've come upon solutions to things that I've been working on myself. It's the peculiar thing: you wake up in the morning having gone to bed with a problem or you're working on something that you don't quite know what the solution to is, and when that marvellous thing happens that all the work gets done in your sleep, it's just the very best. I had an example of that happening with this record. When Dietmar Post and Lucia Palacios were making the Transatlantic Feedback film about The Monks, in order to get the editing done they asked people if they would contribute a cover version of a Monks track. From the proceeds of that they were able to finish the editing. I was working with a Swedish friend of mine who'd introduced me to The Monks so much later than everybody else. I said he had to choose the song, and he picked 'Oh, How To Do Now'. I listened to it over and over so it got into my head and my conclusion was that we certainly can't do it like that, because the narrator of the song is obviously a young man who has extremely sexual feelings for a young lady and I thought it'd be highly inappropriate for us to pursue that angle. How do you get an in? I woke up the next morning and thought, 'I know what to do'. I rewrote their text and took the emotion down, made it more devotional and I thought, 'Ah, that's it, it's like Ali Khan'; you change it into that, so in fact it has one phrase that's basically stretched over half the song, and the other part fell into place. It's either the love or the devotion but also the sense of melody, really stretching out lines. That's an example of it being inspiring and useful."

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