Skip to main content

A man called Otto

What I liked: I liked the book and this adaptation did a good job of highlighting the book's humor. I like that Otto really enjoyed his neighbor's cooking. I especially liked the frozen cat scene and the answering the door in the middle of the night scene, and playing the radio for the cat. I also liked the clown scene and that developing the backstory for the quarter helped rationalize the whole thing a bit. Product placements in movies are frequently a bit odd, I thought they did a good job with the cars and was entertained by the truck. The youtuber was also put to good use. I liked that they included a Swedish cafe and am curious about  the semla. It was interesting that both this movie and A Man Called Ove were very faithful to the book but both managed to be quite different especially in tone. I guess it is my American showing through, I preferred this one because I laughed more. Otto was so grudgingly helpful but you could see the whole time that he did have a big heart. 

What I didn't: The most important take away from all versions of A Man Called Ove or Otto is that people need love and need to be needed to thrive. And really it takes surprisingly little. Another thread in the book and the Swedish version was that normal people banding together can stop the very organized and overwhelmingly powerful institutions in modern society- the government, massive corporations, etc. That didn't come through very much in this one, which is a shame because in the world of Ove those forces are the same ones that isolate people and make them feel useless. 

Who should watch this? People who liked A Man Called Ove but wished it didn't feel quite so sad. People who wish they could run into an annoyed Tom Hanks in HomeDepot. 

Would I watch it again? I liked seeing it and wouldn't say no to watching it again. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Titanic

What I liked: Liked is definitely the wrong word for it but the scenes of the sinking of the Titanic were masterful. They were technologically impressive, apparently remarkably accurate, and emotionally gripping. The variety of ways in which different people dealt with a completely hopeless situation was both touching and thought provoking. Especially beautiful was the string quartet. In isolation from the love story, the sinking of the Titanic is a tragic reminder of the cost of hubris and the necessity of regulating emergency procedures and capacities. It carries similar gravitas as a war film. At the 25th anniversary of the film, I can appreciate how Titanic has impacted movies made later.  What I didn't: So here's the thing. I feel very bad for you if you died in the sinking of the Titanic. I feel less bad for you if you managed to get on a lifeboat on the Titanic and then decided to get off. I question all of your decision making and priorities if you decide to get off a...

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Reveiw

What I liked: For a movie based on what is in essence a fictional encyclopedia, this movie has a surprising amount of plot. Not great plot, but more than I usually get from reading an alphabetical reference book. I liked the dopey sidekick, his facial expressions were great and he was the only one who acknowledged that what happening on screen was not actually normal. I liked that the president led the tiny army of US wizards to their tiny battle in a subway. So as military victories go, this was not one for the history books, for many reasons. But it did lend more meaning to the phrase Commander in Chief. I felt like Dr Who was once again a bow tie wearing socially awkward guy who lives in a box that is bigger on the inside. Some of the creatures were cool but the CGI didn't quite make them alive. I liked the sloth monkey, I don't really know who it was or what it was doing but I would support a slothmonkey planet of the apes crossover. I like that the guy from SWAT has fina...

Clear and Present Danger Review

What I liked: it's the Jack Ryan character, he's pretty cool. That's really all this movie has going for it. Oh and the old school hacking. That was fun. What I didn't: it was boring. Boring boring. It took me three sessions to get through it. If I turn on a movie while folding laundry or grading, it has a good 30-45 minutes to get me interested enough to keep watching, that should be more than enough to get past the plot set up to the for stuff. If a film can't grab me in that time, there is a problem. Blah blah evil president, corrupt spies, bad guys. Been there, seen that done better. Also this is medium in Ryan's career, he is acting director of the CIA, should he really be running around asking under machine gun fire? I mean I like me some good explosions but maybe after all this time in  the CIA he would have meet at least one friend who is trustworthy and could come on adventures with him. If there is no other trustworthy decent agent in the CIA...