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Hugo review
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Flawed eye candy with messages

"I'd imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn't be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason."

With its PG rating, 2011's Hugo is the first Martin Scorsese project that could be considered a kids movie. However, it's not aimed specifically at children - this is a movie made by a lover of a cinema for lovers of cinema. While kids will likely be transfixed by Hugo's gorgeous visuals, the story's messages may be too cerebral and advanced for inexperienced minds. Meanwhile, older audiences and cinema aficionados will get the most out of this film, as they'll be able to comprehend the material laying underneath the picture's lush exterior. Based on the novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (a distant cousin of David O. Selznick), Scorsese's latest film has a few issues in the scripting department, but its positives far outweigh the negatives. And while it's not the greatest 3-D movie in history, Hugo stands as one of 3-D's largest benefactors (right alongside Avatar). Planned and filmed in three dimensions, this is a film which demonstrates the format's marvellous capabilities when a master filmmaker is in the driving seat.



An orphan secretively living in a Parisian train station during the 1930s, Hugo Cabret (Butterfield) is a gifted clock-maker who spends his time maintaining the station's large system of clocks. His primary passion, though, is restoring a mysterious automaton recovered by his late father (Law) that may hold profound secrets. But Hugo is a menace and a thief to those working at the train station, and he has to frantically avoid the Station Inspector (Cohen) as he goes about his daily business. When his latest attempt at thievery is caught by toy shop owner George (Kingsley), Hugo's beloved notebook is taken from him. While working to get it back, Hugo befriends young Isabelle (Moretz), who's enthralled by the boy's proclivity for adventures and machines. The lives of Hugo and Isabelle become irreversibly rocked, however, when secrets about George's past begin to come flooding out.

The key issue with Hugo is one of structure. The flick is split into two distinct halves, bringing about a borderline schizophrenic identity crisis. The movie's first half deals with Hugo's covert everyday life at the train station, but everything changes at the halfway point: Hugo disappears into the background as another characters takes to the fore, with the picture abandoning the story of survival and friendship to instead extol the importance of film preservation. It's a bold move that doesn't entirely work; the title implies that this is Hugo's personal story, but he doesn't grow much as a character throughout the film. Instead, the character arcs are allotted to a supporting player who's suddenly promoted to protagonist. Both stories are admittedly interesting, but only on their own merits, and the merger feels awkward. Consequently, Hugo lacks cohesiveness. Additionally, Hugo is at times dramatically poor. This problem is especially glaring in relation to the Station Inspector, whose character arc feels forced to a cringe-worthy extent. No real tension or conflict stems from the inspector's growth as a character; it only leads to eye-rolls.



Script and structuring problems aside, Hugo is a heroically-detailed visual feast which doesn't merely use 3-D to inflate profits. See, more than just a tale about its titular character, Hugo is a love letter to cinema. It traces cinema's origins, detailing early filmic endeavours and ending with several moving scenes effectively underscoring the magic of the movies. With Hugo, Scorsese explores a time when people thought motion pictures as a whole were just a fad in the late 19th Century, serving as a brilliant comparison to those who call 3-D a gimmick in this day and age. Thus, the 3-D is not merely a cinematic trick here; it's inherently tied to the narrative's central messages. Hugo even contains a re-enactment of the famous screening of Arrival of a Train at the Station, when naรฏve audiences leapt out of the way in fear that the train was coming for them. Days like those are long gone, but Scorsese clearly longs for this level of engagement, and has used 3-D to try and achieve a similar effect. It's invigorating for a 21st Century film to introduce such concepts in an era when cinema is predominantly exploited for profits by studio treadmills rather than artists passionate about the medium.

And how are the 3-D effects, you ask? Absolutely magnificent. Since Hugo was a 3-D movie from the outset, every shot and angle was tailored with extra-dimensional effects in mind. Mixed with the luscious production design and Robert Richardson's exceptional cinematography, Hugo looks immaculate; Scorsese and co. have created a staggering fantasyland, taking us on a tour inside this labyrinthine train station with utmost imagination. It's enthralling to watch the intricate machinery at work in three dimensions, too. Even though Scorsese's pacing is not always spot-on (the film feels done after the first half ends, and it hits the doldrums for a good 10 minutes), the rest of the production team have done a fabulous job. Howard Shore's whimsically majestic score is especially impressive.



As Hugo Cabret, young Asa Butterfield (Boy in the Stripes Pyjamas) is expressive and charming, not to mention affecting when the occasion calls for it. Butterfield is not one of those stereotypically cute kids; he earns our sympathy through the strength of his acting. Alongside him, the always-reliable Chloรซ Grace Moretz is incredibly endearing as Isabelle. She's a cute girl, but she also excels as an actress; she grabs your attention whenever she's on-screen. Digging into the supporting cast, Ben Kingsley is at his best here in years. Called upon to go through a range of complex emotions and tasked with playing younger versions of himself, Kingsley was up to the challenge, and never treads a foot wrong. Meanwhile, Sacha Baron Cohen is spot-on as the harsh Station Inspector. Another standout is Michael Stuhlbarg (recognisable as the star of A Serious Man) playing a film historian who becomes pivotal to the narrative in the second half. It's hard to pinpoint the exact reason why Stuhlbarg is so good here; he just has a pleasant aura about him, and his dialogue is delivered with pitch-perfection conviction. Not to mention, he genuinely looks the part.

Hugo has problems, but it's hard to imagine anyone walking away feeling entirely let down by this audacious picture. Not merely eye candy, the film comes packaged with provocative messages, and it leaves you convinced that the 3-D format can work in deft hands. But while the 3-D's immense fluidity and astonishing sense of depth would make James Cameron jealous, the script cannot quite hold its own against the visuals.

6.8/10

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Added by PvtCaboose91
12 years ago on 12 February 2012 12:21

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