By Wren Culp
Hugo in simple terms is a grand and elegant love letter to movies signed by a master of filmmaking, Martin Scorsese.
Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) is a bright young boy who spends his days running about a train station in 1930s Paris fixing and maintaining the clocks. His father, whom he was fixing an old Automaton with was killed in a fire and now lives an orphan “inside the walls” of the station.
Hugo now feels terribly alone and the world around him is collapsing. His mind is becoming unstable and he is sinking further and further into sadness.
Then Hugo meets Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley), and the two begin to learn about each other while learning about themselves at the same time. Each of them has their own struggles and pain, but through each other learn to accept what lies in their past.
Hugo also meets Georges granddaughter Isabelle (Chloe Moretz) at the station and the two immediately become friends. Isabelle is what Hugo really wanted the most it turns out: A friend.
The film is an adaptation of the popular historical-fiction book The Invention of Hugo Cabret that was written and illustrated by Brian Selznick. When the book was released in 2007, Scorsese bought the rights to the film immediately.
This film is beautiful to say the least. It’s poetic and imaginative whilst still giving the audience a sense of adventure. I loved every part about this movie and it is definitely in my top 10 for the year.
To me, the film is a reminder to follow your dreams no matter what. Life is rough and overwhelming sometimes but it’s also the only one we’ve got. The film reminded me simply that life is made for living.
Scorsese in some ways made a mirror into his own life. You can see and feel his hand gently and gracefully moving the movie along with elegance. He does an outstanding job directing this movie.
It is interesting to see a filmmaker who had made movies such Goodfellas and Taxi Driver take a stab at a family-fun adventure and do so well with it. It just goes to show that Scorsese is a filmmaking genius.
The 3D is pretty cool and definitely worth checking out. Is it on the level of Avatar? Not really, but it gets pretty close. Scorsese definitely knows what he was doing.
Just go experience this movie for yourself. It’s a tremendous masterpiece and one of the best of this year.
Rating: A-
