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A remake of 2015 Swedish comedy-drama A Man Called Ove is far safer ground for the actor they call “America’s Dad”. Hanks plays a retired curmudgeon called Otto who is planning his suicide after the death of his wife.
Early scenes play like a less edgy version of Jack Nicholson’s As Good As It Gets, as the old grump snarls at shop assistants and shoos away a hungry stray moggie while patrolling his street for parking infringements.
But, as this is Hanks, we are already looking for signs of a heart of gold.
He embarks on that inevitable road to redemption when a Mexican couple rent a house across the street. I can’t see Hanks stealing the Best Actor Oscar from his Elvis co-star Austin Butler but Mariana Trevino is my tip for Best Supporting Actress for her powerhouse performance as the feisty and heavily pregnant Marisol.
Immediately pegging her husband as an “idiot” (he kind of is, but a likeable one), Otto begins to help with chores around the house and finds himself an irascible surrogate uncle to her two young children.
It’s charming and life-affirming, if not quite as touching as the Swedish film. Hanks is an expert plucker of heartstrings but Rolf Lassgård is a far funnier grouch.
The flashbacks to the grump’s days as a young man also lack power, mostly due to a wooden turn from Hanks’s amateur actor son Truman.
This is a film about kindness, surrogate families and the importance of looking out for strangers.
In Hollywood, it seems, charity begins at home.
- A Man Called Otto, Cert 12A, In cinemas now
