(Credit: Netflix)

Although still full of youthful vigour off the screen, apparently Tom Hanks has finally reached retirement age. He demonstrates his old-age credentials in an unlikely but convincing portrayal of the curmudgeonly pensioner Otto Anderson, in Marc Foster’s English-language adaptation of the Swedish movie A Man Called Ove.

Voted one of the films of last year by Netflix subscribes after it appeared on the platform, A Man Called Otto proves that Hanks is a bigger draw than ever even on the precipice of his dotage. He still has the same knack for delivering sentimental sucker punches when we need them most, pulling us in with the grating charm of his character’s reluctance to befriend the neighbours he cares about so deeply.

Hanks’ Otto is suffering from severe depression, as evidenced from his multiple attempts to commit suicide during the course of the film. But there are external factors to his ailment, not least the loss of his wife and soulmate Sonya to cancer immediately prior to the part of his story we see.

There could be a mitigating internal factor, too. According to The Art of Autism, Otto displays several symptoms of being on the autistic spectrum. There’s his obsessive insistence on sticking to precise plans, structures and rules, on display in the movie’s darkly comic opening scene when he asks to speak to the manager of a DIY store over being charged 33 cents more than expected for the rope he’s buying to hang himself.

And his inability to adopt social courtesies in conversation. His new neighbour Marisol pulls him up for being “rude” to someone else in their street, before he replies, “I wasn’t being rude.” He genuinely doesn’t seem to understand how his behaviour could be perceived as such. As the other neighbour remarks, “It’s hard to tell the difference sometimes with Otto.” For him more than anyone.

But what physical condition does he suffer from?

More than any neurological or environmental obstacles he faces, though, Otto is plagued by a physical condition that has followed him his whole life. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, referred to in layman’s terms as “genetic enlargement of the heart”, as an army doctor tells him in his youth. The condition is actually responsible for changing his life in a positive sense as well as its negative effects.

It was thanks to his failure of an army health exam because of his heart that he met Sonya, the love of his life, in his youth. In older age, he suffers a major heart attack due to the condition, but this event also brings him closer to Marisol and her family. She can’t help but laugh when the doctor explains to her, “Basically, his heart is too big.” Marisol has been used to Otto being the neighbourhood Scrooge, so finds a profound irony in the nature of his problem.

Yet, behind his gruff exterior, of course, there’s a softer side to Otto. He’s always there to lend a helping hand to those who need it, whether they want him to or not. His flaws, mental state and neurodivergence help humanise him and bring him closer to others in unexpected ways.

Which makes it devastating for his neighbourhood, and Marisol in particular, when his heart finally gives way altogether. Most of us will have seen it coming, but Hanks has a way of bringing a lump to our throats all the same. As grumpy old men go, Otto Anderson is up there with the best of them.