The term national treasure is a peculiarly British thing, anointed upon a specific type of entertainer. It appears the only way to become one is if someone says a person’s name – say, Judi Dench – and it’s met with an immediate wave of agreement. If it’s not, bad news.

Now such an elite club has certain rules, the first of course is that you don’t talk about it, naturally. The second however, is that you can only be one if you were born and lived on these shores. Without exception.

But if an exception were to be made, such as a one time, honorary member, it would surely go to Tom Hanks.

The 66-year-old American actor has one of the most extensive – and impressive – CV’s, which is littered with some true classics such as Big, Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, as well as the Toy Story franchise to name but a few.

His latest role, based on a Fredrik Backman’s 2012 novel A Man Called Ove and the 2015 Swedish film of the same name, sees Hanks playing the grouchy titular character.

Living in a suburb of Pittsburgh is 63-year-old Otto Anderson (Hanks). His life has changed dramatically in the last six months with the death of his wife, and it’s also seen him take early retirement from his engineering role at a local steel company.

All in all, Otto isn’t in the best space mentally. This has him coming across as both abrupt and rude with others, as he’s not one to play nicely with others. He’s also a stickler for rules and regulations, especially pertaining to the upkeep of their community, which doesn’t go down too well with his neighbours.

Then one day a Mexican family moves in across the street, Marisol (Mariana Treviño) and her husband Tommy (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and their two young daughters. They immediately rub Otto up the wrong way with their arrival, but unbeknownst to him, they will prove to be the catalyst to thawing out his grieving heart.

Otto is the perfect character for Hanks; it is a transformative role, where Otto starts in one place, and ends in another, but in director Marc Foster’s hands, he sticks fairly close to the European mentality of the source material, and thankfully doesn't go heavy with the Hollywood syrup. This allows audiences to quietly fall for Otto, despite his curmudgeonly ways, allowing Hanks to flex his considerable acting muscles, albeit in a fairly subtle fashion.

It’s a film that essentially explores grief, and the pain that follows, and how it can have a bearing on both your emotions and your state of mind. And as you would expect, Hanks deals with all aspects of this spectrum as he brings an earthy humanity to his performance of a man on the edge, bearing the heavy weight of grief.

He’s ably supported by a wonderfully warm turn by Treviño, who is the perfect emotional foil, alongside a strong supporting cast. The film also relies on flashbacks to a younger Otto, who despite being played by a fairly inexperienced actor, it paid off big time for director Foster by casting Trueman Hanks – Tom’s son – in a role that the young Hanks nails, handling the complexities of the character with aplomb.

The story does get a little woolly in places, with a building developer seemingly having the kind of power you would expect from a corrupt and evil government, but you can let it slide on this occasion with Hanks so very much on top of his game.

It may not be considered a true classic, but Hanks brings so much to the table, in what is undoubtedly a tender, heartfelt and touching film that only secures his position as an honorary national treasure.