The First Trailer For “A Man Called Otto” Movie Indicates That Tom Hanks Has Moved Away from Fredrik Backman’s Story

At the beginning of this year, when we received the first information about the start of the filming of the movie ‘A Man Called Otto’, with Tom Hanks behind it, we asked ourselves – “Will Otto replace Ove?”

Based on the first video trailer for the promotion of this film, we can conclude that Tom Hanks has strayed far from the basics of Fredrik Backman’s story – a book that was adored by all fans of Saab cars.

Tom Hanks as producer and lead actor, for the purposes of “Hollywoodization” of the film, completely changed the original story and completely removed from it the “primordial conflict” between Saab and Volvo, i.e. the constant friction between the original Ove and his longtime neighbor Rune.

These are driven only by Saab and there is no other choice of vehicle for him, and he is trying to prove this to his neighbor Rune. Also, there is no warm story about Ove’s father and his fondness for Saab cars, and cars in general, which his father passed on to Ove. And Saab itself is so important for this story, because in a way it is the personification of Ove himself – It’s Swedish, reliable, uncommon and trustworthy.

Instead of Saab (and Volvo), and the whole story about cars, Hanks and the team inserted an ordinary Chevrolet Cruze, which is an ordinary “piece of bijouterie”, an everyday car that can take you from point A to point B, without any peculiarities or personifications. Chevrolet Cruze is the opposite of Saab – faceless, mundane, characterless and unreliable. BTW, According to Consumer Reports, during its first year, the Cruze scored the lowest in reliability among compact sedan.

But well, it’s all a choice of producers, screenwriter adapters and directors. Looking at the first trailer, the film is very far from the original book and the original Swedish film “A Man Called Ove“. The original Ove, interpreted by the great actor Rolf Lassgård, was the true embodiment of Ove from Bakman’s book. And it can be seen, at least based on the trailer, that its “American version” performed by Tom Hanks himself is just a pale copy of the original.

So we see that Hanks imitates Lassgård’s treatment of the character of Ove in a couple of scenes in the trailer. The premiere of the Hollywood version of the film “A Man Called Otto” is planned for January 6, 2023, so we will have to wait until we see the entire film to make a final judgment. But for now at least, Hanks’ film is not promising.  And to return to that question from the beginning, “Will Otto replace Ove?” – The answer is no, this Otto is not the Swedish Ove.