A Man Called Otto

Saturday night, 

A night in

Feeling a bit blue 

I dug out this little gem to watch on the couch, covered in dogs

The delightful Mariana Trevinô

Hollywood seldom remakes foreign language films that well

It’s as though popularity automatically means success so let’s not work too hard in the translation . 

A Man Called Otto is based on the Swedish hit A Man Called Ove,which is a story of a suicidal man who is encouraged to start living again by the interaction of friends and neighbours of his neighbourhood association . This was a gentle and amusing film with a big heart thanks to Rolf Lassgård, it’s leading man and the remake is amusing and warm too, but not thanks to its lead Tom Hanks , who remains slightly miss cast. 

In Otto, the Hank’s character is one most of us know in one way or another. He’s a man of policy and process, a man who fights against injustice and the faceless corporations . He is a stickler for rules, is grouchy, mistrusted by neighbours and irritatingly bad tempered but when a Mexican family move in opposite , the garrulous, opinionated, heavily pregnant and big hearted mother Marisol ( a delightful Mariana Trevinò) slowly wins him over making him realising that suicide isn’t the answer to his long term depression.

Hanks as Otto and the wonderfully inept Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Marisol’s husband Tommy

The message that community heals depression and isolation is one dear to my own heart, and is one I totally identify with, and so when Otto slowly begins to thaw, I sobbed buckets .

Mariana Trevinô is the real heart of this movie, cumbersome and shrill yet exuding bucketfuls of affection and warmth , she is more than a match for Otto’s depression , literally pulling him back into the land of the living with some beautifully judged one liners and a genuinely infectious and tearful smile.

It’s a lovely, gentle film that says a great deal about community and love and genuine affection.

Want to feel good? 

Watch it

My Marisol? There’s been a few