The Academy has announced Your picks for the 95th Academy Awards and while Tom Hanks Elvis received a number of nominations (including Best Picture), the actor’s portrayal of the titular character in his emotional drama A man named Otto has been ignored . You can’t win them all, even if more often than not Hanks deserves the spotlight of the Academy, and above all for the unobtrusive and subtle work he does on Marc Forster’s film (he got a solid review from our ReelBlend podcast ). One reason why Hanks could be so effective A man named Otto it is because he received advice and direction from Forster that the actor tells us he never received any until then. It looks amazing.
In the A man named OttoTom Hanks plays a widower who has locked himself in his house (for the most part), only emerging to interfere with his neighbors because they do things that annoy the older man. As we get to know Otto, we learn why he is so sad and we even realize that he is suicidal. Not an easy topic to talk about, and since Tom Hanks appeared the ReelBlend Podcast , delved into difficult conversations he had with Marc Forster to get inside the mind of the character. And one of Forster’s notes surprised Hanks, because he told us:
I won’t tell you what scene it is in the movie, but it is Otto alone in his house. And we…we set it up and we knew what it was, and we knew how it went. And in the back of my head, I thought, “I don’t think we’ve earned this moment in our movie yet.” I think it’s too much presentation. It’s too much on the nose. There is no subtext. It’s just text. And I think, ‘This scene is fake.’ And Mark Forster comes in and sits next to me at the table. He says, ‘You know, I have this problem. … I have a problem with this scene because I don’t know, it feels so wrong. And I said: ‘You speak my mind!’ He says, “So can we take all the false stuff out of this and make it less false?” I said, ‘Mark Forster, you’re the first director I’ve worked with who has ever sat down on set with me and said, ‘Please make it less fake.’ They generally want the opposite. ‘Can you see a bit of a mistake in that? You know, Tom, I know it’s very realistic, but it’s a movie and it needs to be a little more fake.
I mean, it’s action. So there has to be a level of simulation. And Tom Hanks is really good at creating some of the best movies we had the chance to see. There is even a film from his catalog that he thinks he is criminally neglected . But when Hanks says he never had that direction, and you think about the number of incredible filmmakers Hanks has worked with over the years, it’s kind of mind boggling. Steven Spielberg. Roberto Zemeckis. Penny Marshall. Nora Ephron. The Coen brothers. Real teachers. Yet he says Marc Forster is the first to ask. And Hanks provided.
A man named Otto has been strong box office performance , which is great. Multiplexes need serious adult drama, not just franchise IP, to entertain the masses. So when we see a story like this reach a wider audience, it gives us hope what will happen in 2023 .
Source: Cinemablend
