A Man Called Otto
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: December 30, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
21
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJan 10, 2023
A Man Called Otto taps into a seemingly unquenchable audience appetite for stories of cantankerous grumps redeemed by the healing embrace of community. Read full review
60
IGNRyan LestonJan 10, 2023
A Man Called Otto is a benign comedy-drama that peppers a heart-wrenching story with plenty of eye-rolling jokes to distract you from its perfectly pedestrian plot. Read full review
60
EmpireJohn NugentJan 9, 2023
It doesn’t quite successfully balance its warring tones, but a winningly grumpy performance from Tom Hanks — and a winningly sunny one from Mariana Treviño — ensures for a very watchable take on the ‘giving life another shot’ subgenre. Read full review
60
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiJan 6, 2023
A Man Called Otto aims to be a crowd-pleasing, heartwarming film, and, despite its many flaws and speed bumps, is a success on that front. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJan 6, 2023
The thing still works well enough as a middlebrow hankie dampener. Read full review
60
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJan 3, 2023
It is as if every time Forster is presented with an opportunity to do something mildly unconventional – or even, gasp, European in sensibility – he defaults to the easy and cheap Hollywood option. Read full review
58
IndieWireJude DryDec 28, 2022
While “Otto” may reach fresh audiences who’d otherwise balk at subtitles, this sluggish rendition is unlikely to inspire anyone to seek out the original. Read full review
58
ColliderRoss BonaimeDec 28, 2022
Especially compared to the 2015 adaptation, A Man Called Otto is a clunky update that often feels like it's full of cartoonish characters, with poor music choices, and cloying sentimentality. But when Forster and Magee pull away from these eccentricities, the story of Otto and Marisol is often a thing of beauty, and wonderful friendship that is lovely to watch grow. Read full review
50
The Film StageMichael FrankJan 12, 2023
For Forster and his leading man, the drama is a step down from previous work, an emotionally telegraphed, near-manipulative adaptation of a better book already adapted in Sweden to far greater results. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 4, 2023
A Man Called Otto is a formula movie, and no matter the nuances, this formula is not that satisfying. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonJan 4, 2023
As with so many foreign films that get the Americanized treatment, A Man Called Otto is completely defanged, eliminating the dark humor that made the original successful enough to command a remake. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJan 4, 2023
On film, goosed along by Thomas Newman’s jaunty score and a generically weepy power ballad co-written and performed by Hanks’ wife and producing partner, Rita Wilson, the effect is hollow, placating. They’ve turned themes of great love, loss, and the will to keep going into … easy listening. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 4, 2023
If you have any recollection of the original film at all, it’s too easy to note that scene by scene, character by character and plot element by plot element, they remade it slightly less funny and somewhat less touching in most every regard. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanDec 28, 2022
The movie is trying so hard to be a crowd-pleaser, in its reach-for-the-synthetic, sitcom-meets-Hallmark heart, that it will likely end up pleasing very few. It’s the definition of a movie that Tom Hanks deserved better than. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonDec 28, 2022
Director Marc Forster lends this lightweight comedy-drama a crowd-pleasing breeziness, but the picture never cuts particularly deep, especially noticeable when it tries to tackle some darker subject matter. Audiences simply wanting an undemanding, reassuring entertainment may not mind, but Hanks’ change-of-pace role is intriguing enough to wish the material wasn’t quite so mawkish. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubMark KeizerDec 28, 2022
Unlike Jack Nicholson or Bill Murray, whose smile can be either charming or sinister, Hanks always lets us know the character is headed towards redemption. A Man Called Otto would have been a more authentic emotional journey if he didn’t. Read full review
40
ABC NewsPeter TraversJan 13, 2023
As always, Tom Hanks is in there pitching, but this time it’s mostly softballs. The cliched plot about a reformed grumpy old man is so obvious you can see it from outer space. Read full review
40
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsJan 10, 2023
It’s a hard film to despise, and it works perfectly well as a supercharged Movie of the Week for the Hallmark Channel, but the lack of attention to detail and nuance mean that much of the film comes off as maudlin fluff rather than lightly philosophical tearjerker. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyJan 6, 2023
If you’ve seen Eastwood’s Gran Torino or Nicolas Cage in The Weather Man, you’ll know the sort of cranky redemption arc we’re eventually in for here, but this is the flat-packed, self-assembly-kit version – more likely to exacerbate a mild depression than warm the cockles. Read full review
40
The New York TimesGlenn KennyDec 29, 2022
A Man Called Otto is not only more bloated than the Swedish film, it’s more outré, in a way that’s hard to pin down. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 28, 2022
Hanks carries the film with his personality and his easy address to the camera, but this oddity of a film never quite comes to life. Read full review
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