From Gump to grump: The endearing Tom Hanks plays an angry old man in A Man Called Otto

Everyone is used to seeing Tom Hanks play the eternally-nice-guy roles in Hollywood films. Remember his roles in Forrest Gump, You’ve Got Mail and Castaway? His fans were, therefore, understandably aghast at their favourite actor who once played the innocent Forrest Gump now playing a grumpy and irritable older character in A Man Called Otto.In the movie, Tom Hanks plays a bristly widower, who can’t see joy anywhere around him. His face is marked by a permanent scowl and he walks with an angry stomp. He is shown in a string of situations where he is always flaring up – even when he passes a man doing a set of jumps on the sidewalk or when his neighbour’s dog pisses on his manicured lawn. He also habitually picks up fights with people parking wrongly.Hanks, himself, is the producer along with Rita Wilson, his wife of 35 years. The idea for the film came after his wife watched a 2015 Oscar-nominated film, A Man Called Ove. The idea of having her husband take on the role of the grumpy Ove immediately flashed through her mind, leading viewers to wonder if Tom Hanks is a grump in real life.Rita Wilson gave a suitable tongue-in-cheek reply. She said, "There's a narrative about my husband that is he's the nicest guy in Hollywood. That's true, but that doesn't mean he can't access anger, loneliness and unlikability." The film will be released in India in February.