A Man Called Otto

The thing that first caught my attention was the cat.

We'd gone to see "The Fabelmans" a few weeks ago, and in the trailers for upcoming movies there was a snippet from Tom Hanks' latest release, "A Man Called Otto." I wasn't even aware at the time that Hanks had a new movie coming out, but there certainly was a cat involved. Kim and I were determined to see it.

So we did. Yesterday.

I didn't know much about the flick going in, other than it was supposedly about a curmudgeonly old man who'd recently lost his wife, which is what made him a curmudgeon.

I'd taken a quick look at Rotten Tomatoes, the online movie review site, and the critics had given "Otto" a so-so 69 percent rating on the Tomatometer. But what really caught my attention was the audience score of 97 percent. That's a pretty amazing disparity between the professional movie goer and the nonprofessional movie goer, if you follow the numbers. Plus, I'd heard that "Otto" was kind of surprising in how well it was doing at the box office. Better than expected, it seems.

Makes you wonder what do critics know anyhow?

So we bought our popcorn and soft drink and for the next two hours rode the emotional roller coaster that was Otto.

It's humorous in some spots, smaltzy in others. It's pretty predictable, often sentimental, maybe even cheesy at times. So what? I like cheese.

And we both loved it. Add us to the 97 percent. Maybe the 97.1 percent by now.

The movie is yet another serviceable vehicle for Hanks, even though I don't think the role stretches the two-time Oscar winner's talents in any meaningful way. No weird Colonel Parker accents. No out of body experiences like in "Big." No saving Private Ryans. No exceptional Forrest Gumps. Just good ol' steady Tom Hanks, thank you. That's usually more than enough.

I've said more than once that Hanks is our generation's Jimmy Stewart. I stand by that.

There were a couple of other notable performances as well. Mariana Trevino is compassionate and smart as the neighbor who eventually peels away Otto's gruff veneer. And Truman Hanks – one of Tom's three sons in real life – plays the younger version of Otto in lookbacks (not flashbacks). He gets a surprising amount of camera time and is very capable. Must be the family DNA.

It is not a story about redemption, as I've read. More like resurrection. Some people are suggesting this is the movie we need right now, in the midst of our current national dissonance, despair and divide, because of its understated message of hope and healing.

Kim pointed out that the movie, to her, is a love story, and she's not wrong. But I saw it as a love story on many levels: a man and his wife; a man and his neighbors; a man and his neighborhood. Even a man and his cat.

Ah, yes. The cat. The feline, feral in the flick, is unnamed in the movie. In real life, the cat is called Schmagel. Don't ask me why. But I was amazed that you could get a cat to respond as he did for his role in the movie. How do you train cats to perform without them running off somewhere when the director shouts "Action!"

In the end, the movie will tug at your heartstrings. I guarantee it. I didn't know I had that many heartstrings. 

And sometimes, they need to be pulled.