A MAN CALLED OTTO? NO, IT’S FORREST GRUMP

ALSO SHOWING . . .

A Man Called Otto (15, 126 mins) Verdict: Notto so hotto ★★III

THIS film, starring Tom Hanks in the title role (left), was released on Christmas Day in the U.S. That makes some sort of sense, because Otto is a latter-day Scrooge, a curmudgeonly widower recently forced into retirement and known throughout his suburban neighbourhood for bad- temperedly policing the streets.

Then a Hispanic couple move in opposite (the Cratchits, basically), and despite his habitual antipathy, it quickly becomes obvious that they will offer Otto a wiggly path towards redemption.

First, though, we must suffer his repeated attempts to take his own life, which are undermined by a series of dramatic contrivances that get ever more wearisome.

Otto is not a bad man, of course, and flashbacks to his younger self (played by Truman Hanks, Tom’s son) show that he was once quite sweet.

In fact, sweet is the key word, because the movie gets increasingly saccharine, like being forced to drink a mug of tea with a new lump of sugar added every time you take a gulp.

Fifty years ago, Otto might have been played by Walter Matthau; 20 years ago, by Bill Murray.

Cast defiantly against type, Hanks gives it his best shot — which is better than most people’s best shots — but Marc Forster’s film never matches the 2015 Swedish picture that inspired it, A Man Called Ove.

And that, in turn, wasn’t as good as the original and witty 2012 novel of the same name, which started the whole ball rolling inexorably towards this forgettable mush.