Beyond the Book: A Man Called Otto

 “What’s the last movie you watched? Did you enjoy it? Why or why not?”

The last movie I watched was A Man Called Otto. The film is based on the best-selling novel A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, and the film A Man Called Ove by Hannes Holm. The movie tells the story of Otto Anderson who has just retired. His wife died a few years earlier, and so he approaches retirement rather bitterly. He seems to hate people, even a few in his neighborhood who are friendly to him. He decides to end his life. He makes several attempts, but none of them are successful, which made me wonder how serious about it he really was. He seemed serious, though. 

Anyway, things start to change when a new family move into the neighborhood. They are the exact opposite of Otto. They’re scatterbrained and to Otto it seems as if they can’t get much accomplished. In fact, he met them when they were trying to unload their U-Haul. Well, actually they were trying to parallel park it. They couldn’t so Otto in full grumpy mode parks it for them. And life starts to change. Marisol the young mother does everything she can to befriend Otto, but he doesn’t make it easy for her. I enjoyed watching them as they matched wits and exchanged barbs. I won’t tell you any more about the movie because you might want to see it yourself. 

I enjoyed the movie because I wanted to see how Otto handled being retired. I have a friend who’s having a hard time adjusting to life without a job. I personally couldn’t relate because I love retirement. I’ve never wanted to go back. I have a nice life and wouldn’t want to change anything. I do think the movie provided a good answer for my friend. The key is to get involved with other people and help them. 

I also wanted to watch it because Tom Hanks was in it. I think the guy is a wonderful actor. I can’t remember ever disliking a movie that he was in.

If you’re a fan of the action-adventure films with car chases, blazing guns, and violence you won’t like this movie, but if you’re in the market for something heartwarming I totally recommend it.