(Updated 10/20/2022)
Tom Hanks is so effective as a genial everyman because many of his characters are not actually very friendly. In fact, the best Tom Hanks is grumpy Tom Hanks. Whether it’s A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN or SAVING PRIVATE RYAN or CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, he's crotchety. Go ahead, name a Tom Hanks character. (Leave Fred Rogers out of this, please.) On screen, Tom Hanks is grumpy, and that is great.
If grumpy Tom Hanks is the best Tom Hanks, then A MAN CALLED OTTO might end up being the best Tom Hanks movie ever made. It’s an adaptation of a Swedish novel, which has been made into a Swedish movie as well… but that one did not have Tom Hanks. Now we will, without being grumpy at all, tell you why we'll all be seeing Tom Hank's new movie A MAN CALLED OTTO.
How Can You See A Man Called Otto?
Thanks in part to the pandemic, three of the last four movies starring Tom Hanks have debuted via streaming. That won't be the case for this one! You can see A MAN CALLED OTTO exclusively in movie theatres beginning on December 30th, and then will be in theatres everywhere on January 13.
Watch The First Trailer For A Man Called Otto
This first trailer for A MAN CALLED OTTO does exactly what we hoped it would do: It makes us feel warm inside as Otto starts to thaw out around other people. This may be peak Grumpy Tom Hanks, and he is so good at it! He stomps through this trailer like an angry Mr. Bean.
And then there's the cat. The animal could easily end up being the sort of break-out co-star with a performance to rival the goat in THE WITCH and that rowdy seagull in THE SHALLOWS.
The Story In A Man Called Otto
The movie is based on the book "A Man Called Ove," by Fredrik Backman, which was also turned into a hit 2015 Swedish movie, A MAN CALLED OVE, directed by Hannes Holm. Hanks stars as Otto Anderson, "a grumpy widower whose only joy comes from criticizing and judging his exasperated neighbors. When a lively young family moves in next door, he meets his match in quick-witted and very pregnant Marisol, leading to an unexpected friendship that will turn his world upside-down."
The trailer fleshes this out a bit and suggests there's something to learn about Otto's generally disagreeable nature. Was he always like that? Probably not! The grave he goes to visit is likely a big clue.
The Cast Of A Man Called Otto
Along with Tom Hanks, the cast features Mariana Treviño (Club the Cuervos), Rachel Keller ("Fargo" and "Legion"), and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN). Marc Forster (FINDING NEVERLAND) directs from a script by David Magee, who also wrote FINDING NEVERLAND, and adapted the screenplay for LIFE OF PI (for which he scored an Oscar nomination).
We'll have more about A MAN CALLED OTTO when the trailer arrives.
All images courtesy of Sony Pictures.