A Man Called Otto is a 2023 American dramedy film. It is the remake of the Swedish film A Man Called Ove and the 2012 novel it's based off.
Otto (Tom Hanks) is a man who becomes depressed and cranky after his wife dies of cancer. He even attempts suicide when, just then, a couple with a lively Mexican woman named Marisol with their kids move in next door. A local neighborhood cat also takes a liking to Otto and he has to learn how to appreciate people and let go of his past.
Tropes featured in A Man Called Otto include:
- Actor Allusion: Truman Hanks plays young Otto in the flashback, who is Tom Hank's son.
- Adaptation Name Change: Instead of Ove, it is Otto. Rune is also changed to Reuben.
- Adaptational Nationality: Marisol is Mexican instead of Iranian.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In the novel and Swedish film Ove, while a good man at heart, is genuinely prejudiced and bigoted before his Character Development. In contrast, Otto is much more open-minded from the start, and never displays any overt bigotry.
- Adapted Out: The subplot of Ove's lifelong struggles with Obstructive Bureaucrats (the "whiteshirts") from the original work is entirely absent here, presumably due to not being as applicable for an American setting.
- An Aesop: For Otto: Learn to move on from bad experiences and appreciate life in its entirety or you’ll miss out on great experiences.
- Bittersweet Ending: Otto dies of heart failure but at least got to have a fulfilling few final years with Marisol, Tommy, their kids, and the other people around him. He even saved his neighbor, Rueben from being taken away by the corrupt agents, Dye & Merika.
- Character Title: A Man Called Otto
- Composite Character: Malcolm is a combination of the characters Adrian (an old student of Ove's wife Sonja that he befriends) and Mirsad (an Iraqi youth disowned by his father for being gay that Ove takes into his home for a while) from the original work.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Otto’s unborn child was killed in a bus crash. His wife was disabled and they couldn't get pregnant anymore. When his wife later died of cancer, Otto is left alone, depressed, and suicidal.
- Driven to Suicide: Otto becomes drawn to this after his past. Thankfully each of his suicide attempts are interrupted.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even Otto is disgusted by Malcom’s father being prejudiced towards his son.
- Gratuitous Spanish: At the end, Otto says the last section of his goodbye letter in Spanish, which are the last words narrated in the film.
- Hate Crimes Are a Special Kind of Evil: Otto was understandably disgusted when Malcolm got kicked out of his own home for being transgender, since what happened to him was Parental Abandonment.
- I Have No Son!: Malcolm is forced to move out by his father for being transgender so he stays with Otto. Even Otto hates the fact that this happened.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Otto forms a strong friendship with his neighbor Marisol who is young enough to be his daughter. She feels the same way and worries about Otto’s wellbeing the same way that one would with her father. He is also this to Malcolm who later crashes at his place.
- Interrupted Suicide: As per the original narrative, Otto tries but fails each time.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Otto as per the original story. He is only a man who wants quiet, and while he is confrontational, he also does genuinely care for others.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Most things Otto says to others are true and rather based, even if he has to be uptight or even violent about it.
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: While he is certainly a jerk, he has no one in his life anymore but wants others to understand their own actions and motives and becomes a Papa Wolf to those who are in serious need.
- Mythology Gag: Otto is fond of semlor, Swedish Lenten buns, in reference to the work's Swedish origins.
- Papa Wolf: Otto will go as far as physically threaten a road rager that insults Marisol when she learns to first drive.
- He's also incredibly defensive of Malcolm, dismissing the opinions of the kid's father immediately. You definitely get the feeling he'd have some choice words if he ever met the man.
- Passing the Torch: He gives Marisol the crib he'd planned for the child he and Sonya were going to have.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Satisfyingly Averted. Otto is open-minded from the start and is not prejudiced in any capacity, unlike the similar character in A Man Called Ove.
- Race Lift: Otto's frenemy Reuben and his wife Anita are African-American in this version.
- The Reveal: As per the original narrative, is revealed that Sonya had been pregnant when she and Otto got into the bus crash, which caused her to miscarry the baby and left her disabled.
- Social Media Before Reason: One of Otto's thwarted suicide attempts at a train station platform is to tumble in front of an oncoming train, but an even older man beats him to it. Otto then saves the day by getting him out of the train's path before it arrives, but nobody else helps — instead, they pull out their cell phones and record the ghastly spectacle.Otto: Bunch of knotheads pointing cameras at themselves.
- Tragic Stillbirth: While Otto's wife Sonya was pregnant they were in a bus crash that disabled her and killed the baby.
