Tom Hanks as A MAN CALLED OTTO

 Not long after I graduated from college, a college life that transplanted me from Los Angeles to Milwaukee, I started my professional TV career at Milwaukee's ABC affiliate. This was at a time when HAPPY DAYS and LAVERNE & SHIRLEY were big hits. Both those sitcoms had action that took place in Milwaukee. So, when I was at home in my apartment, I would watch the ABC shows because I worked for an extension of the network, I have been a devoted Tom Hanks fan ever sense I saw the premiere episode of a new ABC sitcom called BOSOM BUDDIES. What a spectacular career he's had since that sitcom debuted. Like Sally Field, Robin Williams and actor/filmmaker Ron Howard, Hanks is an ABC sitcom graduate who went on to Oscar victory for dramatic work in films. Hanks won two Best Actor Oscars -- two consecutive Oscars, thank you very much -- for 1993's PHILADELPHIA and 1994's FORREST GUMP.

FORREST GUMP was a box office powerhouse. With other 90s films such as APOLLO 13, TOY STORY,  SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE and YOU'VE GOT MAIL, Hanks was box office gold. He's older now. I'm older now. The movie business has changed and actors like Hanks have to keep it fresh opposite caped comic book heroes snatching up big money at the box office in action/fantasies. 

Nonetheless, he does keep it fresh. He challenges himself and he produces films that embrace racial inclusion in casting. Tom Hanks does this all so smoothly that critics may miss it because it seems almost subliminal. 

He starred in the entertaining comedy LARRY CROWNE co-starring Julia Roberts in 2011. He was producer of this tale about a middle-aged employee in Southern California who's unmarried and downsized from his job despite being good at it. He takes classes at a community college to reinvent himself. Look at who played neighbors and friends in LARRY CROWNE -- Pam Grier, Cedric the Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson. George Takei and Randall Park are in the cast. Look in the classroom scenes. Who has a small part as one of the other students? Future fellow Best Actor Oscar winner Rami Malek. He won for his performance as the late rock star, Freddie Mercury, in 2018's BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY.

Hanks was the perfect choice to play children's TV host, Fred Rogers, in 2019's A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. He got a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his work, work that showed the steely and often frustrated offscreen side of Mr. Rogers. In an interview, Hanks once revealed that he had a big fear of singing onstage -- or on film. Here's how he kept it fresh by challenging himself. He had to sing several TV show songs as Mr. Rogers. And, if you really listened to Mr. Rogers, those songs he sang were not nursery rhyme tunes. They had a light jazz beat. Hanks committed to singing all that jazz.

In 2020's excellent and under-seen NEWS OF THE WORLD, Hanks was strong as the Civil War veteran who is sort of a news anchor. He reads newspaper reports to audiences of people -- people who were shocked at the reports he read of an epidemic. He does this to expand their world view. He supported a freedom of the press. The film came out during the Trump administration and the same year we were hit with a pandemic. The news reader will also fight racism.

His new film is a faithful American version of a hit foreign film based on a hit foreign novel.  In Hanks' new film, Otto is a man who lives alone in Pennsylvania. He's surrounded by friendly neighbors. However, a few describe him as a "grumpy old bastard" and a "nasty bitter old man." 

He's no longer employed. He was pretty much forced into retirement after a company merger. He sees most people around him as being "idiots." A new neighbor, a pregnant Mexican wife and mother, tries to be cordial to Otto, but even she says "Are you always this unfriendly?" We know that they'll become friends.

To see Hanks play such a crusty, insulting character may seem like a character he's never played before, yet that might not be quite right. We learn that Otto is a widower, a widower like the man Hanks played in SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE. Both men do what they do because of rage. In SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, Sam relocates because he's full of rage that his wife died. He's heartbroken. When he moves, he starts dating at the urging of his little boy. That's how the Meg Ryan character enters the scene. Does the widower Otto start dating? No. He tries to kill himself. More than once.

Eventually, thanks to the warmth of his Mexican neighbor and her family, he slowly comes out of his rage cocoon and begins to connect and, in some cases, reconnect with neighbors. He's no longer so dead inside and feeling sorry for himself. This begins when Marisol, the neighbor, brings him a Mexican dish that she's made herself. This is an entertaining and tender film with Hanks in fine form. There's also a very sweet and smart performance from Mariana Treviño as Marisol. Here's a trailer.

A MAN CALLED OTTO was co-produced by Hanks' wife, actress/singer & songwriter Rita Wilson. She's done some stand-out acting work in two of his films -- SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE and LARRY CROWNE.

A MAN CALLED OTTO is not a big, showy production. It's simple and heartfelt. I do not mean this in a snarky sense at all. It's the kind of film that makes a good in-flight movie because it's warm and not jarring.

The foreign novel was titled A MAN CALLED OVE which was translated into English and sold well here in the States. The foreign film version was also titled A MAN CALLED OVE. To show you that Hanks' film appears to be a faithful American version, here's a trailer for the original foreign film.

It kind of unnerved me somewhat to see Tom Hanks as the overbearing, manipulative and greedy Col. Tom Parker in this year's ELVIS. It was soothing to see him as A MAN CALLED OTTO.