Hugo: You Should Go!

I was caught asleep at the controls.  Hugo was completely off my radar screen.  This has been a crazy year for me and I have not been concentrating on movies, I haven’t seen or reviewed as many as I would have liked, I haven’t kept up with what’s been released.  Then a friend told me he’d seen Hugo and it was wonderful.  I did some reading up on it and agreed that it was a must see.  So, off I went with one of my movie buddies.  My friend was right….. Definitely a must see movie and definitely worth seeing in the theatre, in 3D.

Hugo is based on the story written by Brian Selznick titled The Invention of Hugo Cabret.  It is a Caldecott winner (won in 2008).  The Caldecott is an annual award to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.  For more information concerning the book, the inspiration, the author, George Melies and early filmmaking, please feel free to go to www.theinventionofhugocabret.com and www.imdb.com .  Both sites have a wealth of information.  I learned from my niece that Mr. Selznick’s books, both The invention of Hugo Cabret and his new one, Wonder Struck, are awesome.  Trust me, I have it on the best authority.

The story is about an orphan, Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), who winds the clocks in Gare Montparnasse in Paris.    He was brought there by his sot of an uncle after Hugo’s father died.    Uncle Claude then wandered off after training Hugo to do his job of winding the clocks while diligently avoiding the Station Master (nicely played in a restrained manner by Sacha Baron Cohen).  Hugo also must avoid various adults while nipping food and supplies to keep the clockworks going.  This leads to Hugo being caught by the proprietor of the toy shop, played by Ben Kingsley (Papa George, Monsieur Melies), who confiscates Hugo’s precious notebook.  Young Isabelle(Chloe Moretz) is under guardianship of Papa George and Mama Jeanne and strikes up a friendship with Hugo when the toy shop owner confiscates Hugo’s notebook.  She introduces Hugo to Monsieur Labisse (Christopher Lee) the bookseller and Mama Jeanne (Helen McRory).  We slowly learn the story of George and Jeanne and how Hugo and his notebook fit in.  Throughout the film we watch the budding romances of the Station Master and Lisette (Emily Mortimer) and between Madame Emilie (Frances de la Tour) and Monsieur Frick (Richard Griffiths) and their two dogs.  Jude Law does a cameo as Hugo’s father and Johnny Depp pops in and out as a guitar player.  Martin Scorsese pops in too as a photographer.  One of the lovely parts of this film is the creation of a whole world inside this train station.  A world unto itself.  (I credit my on-line friend Hokahey for this succinct observation…. He expresses this sentiment well in his blog Little Worlds.  I suggest you wander over to check his out.   See my link.)

I found the cinematography wonderful.  The sets were well imagined.  The filming was lovingly done.  The story was well-told.  I learned a great deal about early movies.  This is Martin Scorsese’s homage to movies.  I was drawn in and kept there for the most part.  I must admit there were moments here and there that I checked the time.  At the end of movie I loved it.  How does the film rate?  One of the best I’ve seen this year.  But that’s damning with faint praise.  But this was a good movie.  And, Marty knows how to end a movie.  Something that’s been missing from the last few films that I’ve seen.