Having read Frederik Backman’s novel “A man called Ove” and seen the excellent Swedish movie, my wife and I were intrigued by the American version using the name Otto. In their favor is Tom Hanks starring in the title role.
The movie Americanizes the story, but it remains true to the story of a curmudgeon whose layers need to be chipped away. So, it is definitely worth the watch although it is not as good as the Swedish version. Rather than having a persistent and friendly Iranian family who moved in across the street, the neighbors are Mexican American.
As I noted in my review of Ove, you won’t like him at first. But, let his neighbor Marisol continue to chip away with her friendliness, favor requests and food thank yous, and you will begin to appreciate him. At a minimum, you will understand him better.
Marisol is well-played by Mariana Trevino. She brings a relentless charm to the role. Otto’s deceased wife Sonya is beautifully played by Rachel Keller and the younger Otto is played by Hanks’ son Truman. Truman is believable as the younger, reserved but not yet curmudgeon like Otto. Rachel plays Sonya as a very charming, lovely and vibrant counterpart to the young Otto. It clearly shows why the older Otto is missing the key component of his life.
Tom’s wife Rita Wilson is also an executive producer and co-wrote a a lovely song played during and at the end of the movie called “Til you’re home.” She co-wrote the song with David Hodges and performed it as a duet with Mexican artist Senastian Yatra.
I highly recommend either version of the movie. Otto gets good ratings (75% Rotten Tomatoes vs. 91% for the Swedish), but it did receive some criticism from a few viewers who found it trite. My criticism of Otto is the movie left off or changed a few important storylines in the book. One being Ove is a strong man as well as smart, so Hanks did not match my physical image of Ove as the Swedish movie did.
The book is also quite excellent and digs further into Ove’s story. I recommend it as well. Let me know what you think if you have seen the movies or read the book.
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