Reviewed
by Lamar Kukuk
11/25/11
I’ve
always been kinda fascinated by the disconnect between Martin Scorsese
the guy and the films he’s made over his 30+ years as a director.
While his movies are hard, ruthless and obsessed with guilt and ethical
compromise, Scorsese himself has always come across as The Movies’ Dad
(and maybe now their Grandfather): NOBODY loves them more, nobody
knows them better and nobody cares more about what happens to them.
And so it’s no surprise upon seeing his first-ever kids’ movie, Hugo,
that the Taxi Driver director has fashioned a parable to teach future
generations the value of silent cinema and film preservation. What
might surprise some viewers is that Hugo isn’t just a movie that’s
good for you, but it’s a great, great film, the kind that kids of a certain
disposition will enjoy, but movie-loving adults should find absolutely
captivating. I couldn’t help thinking that I’d have benefitted even
more from a greater knowledge of silent film than I possess, but you don’t
need to know anything about its subjects to feel Hugo’s rich emotions
or to stare in wonder at the most amazing-looking 3D movie yet produced.
Hugo is an instant classic, a timeless story about our search for
genuine happiness and satisfaction in life, and it speaks a secret language
to kids of all ages who feel drawn to creativity and the arts.
Circa
1930 in Paris, Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) was orphaned by the death
of his father (Jude Law) and trained by a cruel Uncle (Ray Winstone) to
set the clocks at the Montparnasse train station. Uncle Claude has
vanished, but to keep up appearances and avoid being sent to the orphanage
by the ruthless Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen), Hugo continues to
live in the walls of the station and relentlessly wind the gears that keep
the clocks on time. He’s also working on a project his father left
behind, a broken Automaton, a metal man filled with a system of gears that
should allow him to write something if he were repaired. To that
end, Hugo has been stealing parts from Georges (Ben Kinsley), a grumpy
toy shop owner who catches the kid and takes the notebook that contains
all his drawings of the Automaton. Georges is deeply shaken by the
notebook and pretends to destroy it, but when Hugo follows him home one
night, he meets his Goddaughter Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), who tells
him that the notebook still exists. A spirited girl who’s read innumerable
books, she helps Hugo to fix the machine. It draws a picture, and
when they follow that image, it will lead them to the truth about a past
Georges has tried to forget, even as the Station Inspector draws closer
to capturing Hugo and sending him away.
Of
course, movie buffs should be able to guess the secret Georges Melies is
hiding, particularly once they see the picture the Automaton draws:
I really don’t know how much, if anything, kids today know about the silent
movie era and Melies’ contribution to the development of the art form,
but Scorsese and writer John Logan (working from the book “The Invention
of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick) keep from getting too far outside what
was fairly common knowledge when I was young while sticking remarkably
closely to the historical record. I was amazed to do some research
on Melies on the Internet after seeing the movie and find that pretty much
everything Hugo contends is accurate except, of course, for his
relationships with the movie’s fictional characters. Of course, who
am I to say none of the Automatons Melies constructed during his lifetime
ever passed a secret message along to a kid just because it’s not on Wikipeida,
wink wink?
While
containing relatively little actual magic (the mechanism by which the Automaton
draws that particular picture remains a mystery although the fact that
it does so has considerable thematic pop), Hugo is magical to the
bone: Scorsese and his crew have created a wondrous landscape that
feels like a children’s book come to life, as opposed to so many films
that feel trapped in the world an illustrator created. 3D is no mere
gimmick to Scorsese, who uses the technology for all it’s worth and then
some: the train station’s inner world of multiple levels and huge
grinding gears is an awesome thing to behold. But even more impressive
is how much mileage he gets out of the living things on-screen in 3D, with
the Station Inspector’s vicious dog running toward the audience with amazing
menace, the Inspector himself leaving so far forward while interrogating
Hugo that it seems the 5th row could look up at his chin, and Melies seeming
to emerge from the screen itself to speak to us when giving a speech at
the end. Hugo is a true visual marvel, and it speaks to what
would be possible if more filmmakers took the 3D technology seriously.
This is what the studios hoped for when they first started twisting filmmakers’
arms to work in 3D: a movie that begs to be seen on the big screen
with the glasses.
Butterfield
is great in the lead; there’s a real Dickensian pop to his suffering and
yet he easily slides into childlike joy when called upon. Moretz
is best known for how dark she can get in movies like Kick
Ass and Let Me In, but here she’s delightfully light, giving
a real emotional backbone to the kind of girl who says “This might be an
adventure, and I’ve never had one before!” I did mention that Scorsese’s
got a big thing about regret, and it’s the primary engine of his adult
characters, all exceptionally played. Kingsley looks fortuitously
like the real Melies, allowing the movie to toggle back and forth between
actual footage from his movies and recreations, and the Oscar winner is
terrific as a bitter old man hiding a luminous artist inside. Cohen
does a great job peeling back the layers of an initially cartoonish villain
to show real pain and vulnerability as a character the movie slowly, skillfully
positions as a dark alternate destiny for Hugo should he fall into the
social welfare system. Christopher Lee turns in a charming and delightful
performance as a librarian who loves to give away books and has helped
to open Isabelle’s mind to the possibilities of the world. In a movie
about the need to find a calling in the world, he nicely represents the
chance to have a long happy life doing what you love. Emily Mortimer
shines as the flower salesgirl who might be able to bring out the humanity
in the Station Inspector and Helen McCrory does a great job as the leading
lady in Melies’ life.
Hugo
looks great and tells a story with depth and heart that could just inspire
its young viewers to do a lot more than just buy tie-in merchandise.
It’s not at all the kind of frenetic kids movie we’re accustomed to nowadays,
and some will be put off by its old-fashioned virtues. But, man,
everyone should enjoy just looking at it as an amazing 3D spectacle, one
that shows the Movies’ Grandfather is still more than capable of picking
up some new tricks. |
