If being the choicest prey for the ever-vigilant troublemaker that is misery is what makes people seek comfort and reassurance, Mark Forster couldn’t have aimed wrong with his 2022 dark comedy-drama “A Man Called Otto.” Some of the insoluble anxieties that Otto’s mind irrevocably stews in happen to be some of the rather unpleasant yet tremendously plausible contemplations that sneak up on us in our involuntary solitude. I would rather not specify the darker despondencies, lest I linger around self-reflection for longer than I intend to. But even I, like most of you, have, as a matter of course, mulled over the possibilities of a lonely dotage. It’s even worse for Otto, the man who was once called Ove in Fredrik Backman’s Swedish novel, which inspired the screen adaptations, for he is cursed by life to be a grouch. That is, until a tender amalgamation of patience and love goes unruly. It vehemently defies a few no-nos established by the tribe of the “wokes” to stick around for Otto’s spiky walls to crumble, so it could hug the warmth that he hides away.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In ‘A Man Called Otto’ Film?
Dye and Merica’s drab housing community is frequently trotted by a mean, old man. Otto is a neurotically watchful resident who is as severe when trucks park in reserved spots without a valid permit as he is when he’s met with the unsightly view of a neighbor exercising. There’s hardly a thing that evades Otto’s aggrieved complaints. One might even assign him the title of “Karen,” seeing as he can’t let go of a minor discord at the supermarket and asks to see the manager. If you thought having him as a neighbor must be a pain, imagine him as your supervisor at work! Of course, his coworkers schemed a rather cold coup d’etat and practically demanded that he opt for the severance package. To make him pay for hardhandedly bettering the company, they even went the distance to arrange a passive-aggressive farewell party where he had to see his face being sliced into a cake. Having Otto around isn’t all bad. Not when he’s the only one to really care about how his neighborhood runs as he staunchly sorts the garbage on his daily walkabouts. He doesn’t like people, and the feeling is, for the most part, reciprocated. I mean, suffice it to say that he’s basically Dwight Schrute as an old widower. That paints quite a picture, doesn’t it?
Sure, there are way too many grumps out there who were just born that way. Although, a surefire way to work out if there’s a secret fountain of kindness contained within a meanie’s deadpan demeanor is to keep a close eye on everything else they do. However much he grunts to have to be subjected to interactions with people who he thinks are idiots, Otto doesn’t back out when he’s asked for help. Even when having to take the wheel from his new neighbor Tommy and parallel park, his wagon comes at a seriously inconvenient time; Otto postpones wearing the noose around his neck if only to put a stop to Tommy’s very pregnant wife Marisol’s incessant screams. He has demanded the immediate termination of his electricity and gas supplies and has secured a hook to his ceiling for the noose. Otto wants to put an end to his journey. Yet, the world doesn’t seem to be done with him. First, his frail ceiling gives out before his body can manage to run out of air. And when he is about to end it on a train track, he is compelled to rescue an even older man who collapses onto the track. Marisol banging on his garage door to borrow a ladder for Tommy puts a halt to another of his carefully curated suicide attempts. A man can’t even asphyxiate himself in peace.
Why Does Otto Want To End His Life?
Otto has a big heart, literally. Inheriting hypertrophic cardiomyopathy from his father made it impossible for a young Otto to join the army. En route to his den with a glum face, Otto sees a beautiful beam of sunlight drop her book on the platform before boarding the train. It’s an endearing story, however formulaic it may be. Partly to be the considerate young man that he is and partly to get another glance at the beautiful girl, Otto decides to take the wrong train to hand over the book to Sonya. The sweet girl invites him to join her for the journey and even saves him the embarrassment of having an empty wallet by paying for his ticket. Otto is asked to keep the quarter change for good luck, and only later in life will he be able to fully grasp just how good his luck would turn out to be. She is everything that Otto couldn’t even imagine in his most graceful dreams. She is the warm embrace of understanding as she kisses an unemployed Otto when he goes hungry just to make sure that she is able to order anything she wants on their date. She stands over the peak of all that he aspires to accomplish as he puts himself through college and shakily expresses his desire to marry her. Love slips through the cracks of their humble finances and holds together the unit that they are molding as a family. Sonya takes up a job at the local school and befriends their neighbor Anita, whose husband Reuben becomes great pals with Otto.
Otto’s friendship with Reuben doesn’t survive their differences. Otto is a rigid individual set in his ways to advocate for the simpler mechanisms of life. He can’t make peace with how flashy cars and a spot at the homeowner’s association allure Reuben. But he isn’t too glum about losing a friend. Not when he has his best friend by his side. We stand to suffer the worst of losses when we have something that we fear losing. And as the claws of fate are inclined to claim their offering when happy people are off guard, a devastating bus accident on their way back from their first trip leaves Sonya paralyzed from the waist down and terminated her far-along pregnancy. Otto withstands all the pain and overcomes hurdles one after another to give Sonya an easier life. He builds a lower kitchen counter so she wouldn’t have to stop doing what she loves. He fashions a makeshift ramp for his wheelchair-bound wife to move around. Otto signed away the entirety of his life to just one purpose: taking care of the one who brightens everything around him. But he still couldn’t keep her with him. The Otto that we see now has been acutely wounded since cancer snatched his wife away from him six months ago. The joyful glimmer that had illuminated his life with Sonya had erased all that he knew before their paths crossed. All he now wishes for is to join her in death, even if he has to welcome his demise willingly.
What Chips Away At Otto’s Hard Facade?
Nobody told Otto’s new neighbor Marisol that it would be easy to get close to the mean old man, who is increasingly defensive the more he is prodded. But Marisol seems to have taken the job to heart. She hands over a box of food she made to a reluctant Otto and doesn’t shy away from speaking her mind when he is unappreciative of the gesture. Sitting before Sonya’s coats that he hasn’t been able to put away, Otto grudgingly puts the fork to his mouth, only to be delighted by how good it is. Turning a deaf ear to his moans and groans, Marisol nudges him to drive her to the hospital when Tommy injures himself. Wearing a wary face does nothing to hide that Otto is starting to enjoy being around Marisol’s adorable daughters, Abby and Luna. A grumpy old man showing interest in the children’s boxer figurines can’t be only for the sake of being polite, especially when it’s someone as innately impolite as Otto.
For a man testy enough to growl at the nincompoops and even physically strongarm the ones that get on his nerves, Otto is surprisingly calm when he teaches Marisol how to drive. Even if he can’t get himself to say it out loud, Otto genuinely admires and even respects the 30-year-old immigrant woman who deftly handles a family of two children and a man-child. The first discernible sign that he has begun to let Marisol in is visible when he takes her to the little bakery where he and Soyna spent many blissful Saturdays. It’s her unabashedly distinguishable persistence in cracking his shell to reveal the softness that he buries inside that Otto’s resistance doesn’t stand a chance against. It is the same persistence of the seemingly feral stray cat, who wouldn’t budge no matter how cold Otto was to it, that makes the glum old guy adopt a pet when it was the last thing he expected of himself. And it is when the cat sleeps on Sonya’s side of the bed and places his paw in Otto’s hands the same way Sonya would gently place her finger in his hand that it becomes practically impossible for him not to get attached to the sweet feline. The faster Otto got to escape the banality of life without Sonya; the harder life would hold on to him with reminders that his work here isn’t done. The man who once closed the door in Marisol’s face without so much as a word of appreciation when she was dropping off food is the same man who now babysits her children.
‘A Man Called Otto’ Ending Explained – What Does Otto Leave Behind For Marisol And Her Family?
The pensive state that a man like Otto resides in has him attenuated by a lack of purpose more often than by a lack of care. His entire life was spent happily taking care of his paralyzed wife. It isn’t that Sonya was the first spark that lit a fire of compassion in Otto. What was always within him was only fueled by Sonya, who was also driven by the urge to help people and make things better. When Otto comes across Malcolm, the trans man who goes to the school where Sonya used to teach, the grieving husband is further reminded of just how good Sonya was to people. In a school crawling with bullies and bigots, Sonya was the only person to tackle the mistreatment and strive to make the school a better place for Malcolm. Otto is insistent in the belief that the youth are choosing to be wasted away and have no interest in putting forth effort and paying their dues. It is when he learns that Malcolm works two jobs and still finds the time to pursue his interests that Otto begins to see him in a different light. Of course, he would be peeved to know that Malcolm is saving up the money for a Volkswagen, a car that Otto has no love for. But Otto isn’t as quick to dismiss a person’s potential as he used to be.
Opening up to Marisol has made him see that people are not what they seem to be on the surface. Every wandering soul that lingers around seeking help and guidance from Otto comes off as a token of reassurance sent by Sonya, asking him to hold on a little longer. As he sits down before the tarp so as not to have his brain splatter all over his room when he blows his head off, a knock on the door makes him miss the shot. Malcolm has been kicked out by his father for being brave enough to be who he really is. Otto doesn’t mind opening his door to the poor guy and even allows him to move into Sonya’s room. Perhaps it was the vision of Sonya that reminded him that she wouldn’t have turned a homeless kid away. Otto may have been holding an unrelenting grudge against Reuben that even the latter’s paralysis couldn’t budge, but there’s no bond stronger than that of a shared hatred. Dye & Merica’s agent has cunningly convinced Reuben’s and Anita’s estranged son Chris to sign off the house to them. If there’s anything that Otto feels with a passion, it’s an effervescent hatred for the money-minded company that butchered the forest to raise houses.
The company that unlawfully obtains the elderly residents’ private medical records also never cared about making the houses disability-friendly. When Otto comes to know that Chris has used Anita’s Parkinson’s disease as a means to gain power of attorney over her and is now planning to send the old couple to an assisted living facility, he can’t keep mum and watch it happen. He gets in touch with the social media reporter who wants to do a piece on the hero who saved a man’s life and invites her to take part in the protest against the cold-blooded Dye & Merica. Standing guard against his friends’ illegal and unbelievably cruel eviction, Otto makes the mousy agent take a hike. He has always known that having a big heart will accelerate his doom. Sending Marisol into a panicked state, Otto collapses in front of his home and is rushed to the hospital. Otto seems to be doing fine for now, but the stress has made Marisol go into labor. The man who furiously kept the world at arm’s length now gently places Marison’s baby boy into the bassinet that was intended for his own baby.
In the course of his life, Otto has come to love not just one person but an entire community of people who have also warmed up to the man they used to be wary of. To Marisol, Otto is like a father. To Malcolm, Otto is the saving grace who kept him from falling into a devastating pit of aimlessness. With a smile and a snarky remark, Otto gives up his car to Malcolm, a boy he has come to care for more than he expected. Soon after, he brings Marisol and her family to Sonya’s grave to introduce the people that have made his last few years worthwhile to his wife, who gave him more happiness than he could dream up; Otto’s heart condition catches up to him. He leaves behind a letter for Marisol, assuring her that he didn’t take his life, and takes his last breath on Sonya’s side of the bed. He has left behind all of his belongings to Marisol, someone he came to love dearly. With tears in their eyes, his neighbors, who have become his family, say goodbye to the lovable, grumpy man at a low-key funeral that he had specifically requested in his letter. There are smiles and mirth in the wake of a man who has lived a life fuller than most people get to live. The man who didn’t think he had anything keeping him tethered to life left behind bonds that will remember him tenderly and legacies that will be carried on by the people he influenced without even trying.
