The core premise, drawn from the Swedish novel and film A Man Called Ove, remains a traditional story of grief, community, and redemption without identity politics as the driver. However, the American remake deliberately alters a minor original character from a young gay man to the transgender teenager Malcolm, whom Otto's late wife Sonya had supported; Otto interacts with him in several scenes that explicitly reference this identity.

This change, absent from the source material, introduces a contemporary LGBTQ element as a subplot. Casting features organic diversity in the Mendes family and other neighbors, but the trans addition stands out as a targeted update. Audience reception shows a clear split, with multiple user reviews on Metacritic and elsewhere criticizing the 'shoehorned' trans scenes and 'woke agenda' as detracting from the story, while critics largely ignored or downplayed it.