Review: Hugo

12 years ago

A mentally unstable cabbie threatens his own reflection, a hot-tempered, diminutive Italian-American demands to know the nature of his humour, two enormous gangs of 19th Century working men square off in a New York street brawl – all moments of iconic American film-making from Martin Scorsese, but hardly suitable for the younger members of a cinema audience this festive period.

With 3D effects thrust (literally) in the faces of audiences in a wide variety of genres, the list of marquee directors without a 3D credit on their CV is shortening rapidly. Scorsese had remained a notable name on this register, with Shutter Island as his last big-screen venture.

Scorsese’s 3D debut, Hugo, is a dramatic family adventure. Based on Brian Selznick’s 2007 historical-fiction novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, it is the tale of an orphaned boy in the 1930s who lives alone in a Parisian railway station. Following the death of his beloved clockmaker father (Jude Law), Hugo is taken from his happy childhood of clock repair and cinema into the custody of his alcoholic uncle Claude (Ray Winstone), learning the family trade under his questionable tutelage. Living hand-to-mouth following Claude’s disappearance and careful to avoid the attentions of the somewhat deranged station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen), Hugo continues to maintain the station clocks and gathers parts for work on his late father’s most remarkable repair project – an automaton. This mechanical man is designed to be able to write with a pen, and Hugo is convinced that its return to working order will provide a message from his late dad.

Hugo’s dedication to restoring the automaton to full working order sees the boy encounter an enigmatic old toy shop owner (Sir Ben Kingsley), who catches him stealing mechanical parts and confiscates his father’s blueprints notebook. Hugo manages to gain the assistance of the toy shop owner’s precocious god-daughter Isabelle (Chloë Moretz) in his quest to regain the plans. Sharing their respective loves of film and literature, the two form a close bond as they bid to unlock the secrets of the automaton and the past of Isabelle’s ‘Papa Georges’.

Hugo is evidently a film close to the director’s heart, in its rather child-like wonder at the magic of cinema and its innovators. With a marvellous cast that includes supporting roles for Christopher Lee, Richard Griffiths and Emily Mortimer, it is almost the definition of a marquee, big-budget family feature for the festive period. Kingsley puts in a commendable performance as the secretive Georges Méliès, Law shelves his usual routine as an attractive piece of wood to capably portray Mr Cabret and young Asa Butterfield shows pathos beyond his years as the lost but ingenious young protagonist. With 3D effects that seem somewhat less redundant than with many releases in 2011, it is a film that can be appreciated by cinema enthusiasts and casual viewers alike.

With religious historical drama Silence lined up for 2013 and a Frank Sinatra biopic in the pipeline, it remains to be seen whether Scorsese will try his hand at this kind of feature again. As for Hugo, it is safe to say that it would take a hard and cynical heart to not swell with sentimental joy as the conclusion arrives.

Dir: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Sir Ben Kingsley, Chloë Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen, Christopher Lee, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Jude Law, Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour.
Run Time: 126 mins
Certificate: U

Written by James Erwin, standing-room-only writer

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