“A man named Otto”: When Hollywood star Tom Hanks longs for death

Tom Hanks hasn’t had a good year. The two-time Oscar winner has been nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for “Worst Actor” for his roles in Disney’s “Pinocchio” and “Elvis”. These films are now joined by “A Man Named Otto”.

But the sugar-sweet Hollywood remake lacks the Nordic harshness of the Swedish original (more below). The literary adaptation “A Man Called Ove” (2015) tells the darkly humorous story of a lonely old man who kept failing to kill himself just to realize that life was worth it – a sentimental film that became a hit.

Its Nordic touch allowed real desolation to be mixed with sweet comedy. This desolation is sorely lacking in the Hollywood remake. What remains is only sentimentality.

The German-born director Marc Forster, who shot what is probably the most heavily criticized Bond film in 2008 with “Quantum of Solace”, at least preserves the frosty setting by setting the events in the depths of Pittsburgh’s winter.

Ove has become Otto and Rolf Lassgard has become the “Forest Gump” star Hanks, who not only appears here as the eponymous antihero, but also produces the film with his wife Rita Wilson and on top of that his son Truman Hanks (27) as young Otto in cheesy flashbacks. We meet the grumpy contemporary when he wants to buy a rope in a hardware store, but when he gets to the cash register, he has a long discussion with an employee about the fact that they want to sell him more rope than he needs. He seeks controversy wherever he can. Like Ove, Otto is angry at the world. Out of grief for his wife, he wants to hang himself with the rope when he is interrupted by a neighbor. Whereas in the Swedish film it was an Iranian, now it’s a Mexican (Mariana Trevino) who pulls the grumbler out of his shell. As in the original, the rest is a benevolent redemption story.

In the USA, this remake has mainly picked up older cinemagoers and, contrary to all expectations, has so far brought in a very potent 37 million US dollars. But anyone who has seen the Swedish film adaptation has no reason to go back to the cinema for Hollywood. Hanks is unable or unwilling to embody a death-wishing curmudgeon. He’s an excellent actor but needs more finesse in roles again. (MS)

“A man named Otto”: USA/S 2023, 126 min., director: Marc Forster, currently in cinemas

OÖN rating:

• The trailer for the film:

The original

In 2015, “A Man Named Ove”, a novel adaptation, became a surprising cinema success in Europe. Rolf Lassgard, known as film and TV detective Kurt Wallander, played the leading role. The work was nominated for two Oscars (Makeup/Best Foreign Language Film).