This is a movie about community and a movie about family
OSCAR WINNER TOM HANKS TELLS KERRI-ANN ROPER ABOUT HIS NEW FILM A MAN CALLED OTTO
IT’S not everyday you get to be a proper grump in the workplace.
But that’s what Hollywood star Tom Hanks’s latest film role afforded him the chance to be.
The Oscar winner, 66, and star of hit films like Forrest Gump and Philadelphia, plays Otto Anderson in A Man Called Otto, the upcoming film based on the best-selling novel by Swedish author Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove.
Speaking about the character on a recent episode of The Graham Norton Show, the actor revealed that it was “...fantastic to release my inner grouch”.
“Unlike a lot of grumps, he’s not trying to protect his own or maintain a status quo,” adds Tom.
“Otto wants balance and equity for everyone who shares the street, and the best way to share that street is to care for it so that everyone can enjoy its benefits.”
He adds that the film, at its core, also highlights neighbourly bonds. He explains: “When the tornadoes hit, what’s the first thing that happens? Neighbours come out with chainsaws and U-Hauls. “A Man Called Otto puts that idea forward – this is a movie about community and a movie about family.” The Marc Forster-directed film follows Otto as he descends into a deep malaise when his wife dies and he is forced to retire, before boisterous new neighbours move in leading to an unlikely friendship. Otto meets his match in quickwitted Marisol, played by Mexican actress Mariana Treviño, 45, and the pair form an alliance that transforms his life.
The film also sees Tom star alongside his son, Truman, 27, who portrays him in flashback scenes. Meanwhile, his wife of more than 30 years, Rita Wilson, is also a producer on the film alongside him. Actress and singer Rita, 66, says, there was “so much” about the story that resonated with her. She explains: “The theme of finding hope, finding community with the unlikeliest of people, and learning to accept others that may be different than us made an impact on me.
“Adding to that was that there are serious themes yet, as in life, even in the most difficult times, we can still laugh.
“These elements of light breaking through the dark give us hope. And, we can all use a little hope.”
Director Marc Forster, whose other films include Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball and 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace, says he was “blessed” to have had Tom and Mariana, who is best known for starring in Netflix comedydrama Club de Cuervos, on screen together.
The 53-year-old says: “For a director, you feel very blessed when you have two actors who have a true, artistic connection like Tom and Mariana do.
“They elevate what’s on the page and bring magic out on screen. It makes your heart open, and it makes you laugh, it makes you cry.
You can’t ask for more.”
And did Truman ask his famous dad for any acting tips?
He says: “He would talk to me about different ways to stand and walk.
“Certain mannerisms, like this pointing thing that he was incorporating into the character, so that we could create a continuity.”
The film’s score, composed by Finding Nemo’s Thomas Newman, also includes an original song, Til You’re Home, co-written and performed by Rita, who released a duets album in September last year. The song has already been named on the original song shortlist for the 95th Oscars, ahead of the nominations for all categories being announced at the end of January 2023.
She says: “I’ve been writing songs for the past 10 years and have written songs for independent movies before, and Marc was familiar with my albums.
“I was humbled and grateful for the opportunity, but I also made him promise to be honest with me if he didn’t want to use it.
“As producer, my first allegiance is to the film and the director’s vision.”
Performed as a duet with Colombian singer Sebastian Yatra, Rita says of the song: “When my dad died, a close friend said to me, ‘the conversation continues’, and that has always stuck in my mind. “I wanted to make a song that was evocative of that – a song that could be heard as a conversation two people may be having with each other, even if they’re not in the same room.” With a CV that is packed with timeless movies, from classics like Splash, Big, Sleepless In Seattle, to Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, Cast Away and The Polar Express, it’s no surprise there is some early Oscar buzz surrounding Tom’s performance in A Man Called Otto. However, another talking point for the actor in 2023 is his debut novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, which is being published in May. Described as a “wildly ambitious story of the making of a colossal, star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film, and the humble comic book that inspired itall”, it follows on from his 2017 short story collection Uncommon Type. Reflecting on the tome, the actor said to Graham Norton: “Write what you know, right?”
Well, few people know more about making major motion picture masterpieces than Tom does. How can it not be a bestseller?
Elements of light breaking through the dark give us hope
Rita Wilson
A Man Called Otto is in cinemas from January 6
IN August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was lynched in Mississippi during a visit to his cousins. He was accused of making inappropriate advances to a white female store owner.
Two men stood trial for killing Emmett and were found not guilty by an all-white jury.
The following year, the men admitted to the crime in a magazine interview, protected against prosecution for the same offence by the double jeopardy clause in the US Constitution.
Director Chinonye Chukwu’s harrowing drama relives this shocking chapter in modern US history and the subsequent quest for justice spearheaded by Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. Danielle Deadwyler electrifies every frame of Till as the griefstricken yet defiant matriarch, urging her boy to be on his best behaviour in Mississippi (“Be smart down there”) and passionately advocating solidarity at a Harlem rally to effect change (“The lynching of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all”).
A script co-written by Michael Reilly, Keith Beauchamp and Chukwu is respectful to a fault and exercises restraint at the most critical juncture (Emmett’s horrific final moments are heard but not seen.) Mamie Till-Mobley (Deadwyler) lives in a middle class, all-black neighbourhood of 1955 Chicago with her 14-year-old son Emmett (Jalyn Hall), who is about to visit his cousins in Mississippi. She is reluctant to let her boy stray outside the city limits. “I don’t want him seeing himself the way those people are seen down there,” Mamie tells her mother Alma (Whoopi Goldberg), but she nervously relents and Emmett travels to the town of Money – population 398 – with his cousins Maurice (Diallo Thompson), Wheeler (Gem Collins) and Simmy (Tyrik Johnson).
At the Bryant’s Country Store, Emmett violates an unspoken code of conduct by paying 21-yearold white proprietor Carolyn Bryant (Haley Bennett) a compliment: “You look like a movie star.”
In the dead of night, Carolyn’s hotheaded husband Roy (Sean Michael Weber), and accomplices, drag Emmett from his cousins’ home. A grief-stricken Mamie insists on an open coffin and the US is confronted with shocking images of Emmett’s bludgeoned face, which intensifies efforts by the NAACP to introduce legislation. Till is a deeply affecting history lesson that does not stray outside clearly marked dramatic lines that relate to the case and its aftermath. Deadwyler is sensational and richly merits a seat at the Academy Awards nominations table, with sterling support from Hall, who exudes fresh-faced innocence. Period detail is impeccable.
As a bruising parting shot, closing title cards remind us that lynching only became a federal hate crime in March 29, 2022 when President Joe Biden signed The Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law. Chukwu’s picture could not be more timely.