Review of 'Hugo'
Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) is a young orphan who, through a series of unfortunate events, is left taking care of the clocks in a Paris train station in the early 20th century. It is there he works in secret on a “mechanical man” left to him from his father but he needs the key…Daily life is a struggle as he continuously avoids the station inspector (played wonderfully by Sacha Baron Cohen) who just KNOWS Hugo is up to no good. Meeting a toy-seller in the station, Georges Méliès (Ben Kingsley) and his god-daughter Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz) sets off a series of events that will lead him to a deeper understanding of himself, his mechanical man and his father.
This film looks wonderful and immerses the viewer in this world from long ago. The characters that populate Hugo's life in the station are wonderful and entertaining (the station inspector forever being thwarted when wanting to get closer to the attractive flower seller, a case in point). The acting is wonderful with Kingsley putting in a start turn as the toy-seller and Butterfield is convincing as the orphan child. A heart-warming film about lost lives and loves.
Rating: “Nearly perfect, but not quite”
Review Date: 2012-05-27
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Year: 2011
Length: 126 minutes
Genre: Melodrama
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970179/
Other reviewed films by Martin Scorsese:
- Gangs of New York (2002)
- Shutter Island (2010)