Tom Hanks’ ‘A Man Called Otto’ Continues on Local Screens (Sun., 1/29/23)

Marisol (Mariana Treviño) shows off her daughter’s family portrait to her much-too-busy neighbor (Hanks.)

When a cantankerous man retires from a career in engineering, his days at home are now interrupted by neighbors whose every idiotic need aggravates his every waking hour. As the “Man Called Otto,” Tom Hanks takes it all on. But he has much more important things to do. Both comic and devastating, Otto’s ambitions are equally sweet and sour. 

Filmed in Pittsburgh (but showing very little of it,) Otto’s neighborhood is threatened by a looming developer. Kids leave their bicycles in the wrong places, no one seems to obey the parking rules nor the private gate that protects their orderly street, and there’s a stray cat that pops up everywhere. And then, a young family moves in across the street. To Otto’s dismay, they seem no less idiotic than all the others.

Ever cheerful neighbor Jimmy (Cameron Britton) exercises his freedom in Otto’s (Hanks) eccentric community.

First a Swedish novel, then adapted as a Swedish film, Tom Hanks, his producer wife Rita Wilson, and their new-to-the-screen son, Truman, make this a family film. Yet, despite a PG-13 rating, it is a “family film,” of which there have been few in past years. You may wish to bring some tissues, but “A Man Called Otto” will lift your spirits and satisfy, too. See our full review.

Photos: by Niko Tavernise, courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

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