Movie #3 - Hugo 3D

I strongly urge you not to write this off as a kids' movie.  Initially we were horrified to realise our last three movies have been "kid movies" as we sat through the (admittedly funny) sneak preview of Ice Age: Continental Drift for the third time in three weeks.  We immediately resolved that our next film should be the much more grown up "Young Adult".  But as powerhouse director Martin Scorsese's newest masterpiece unfolded, we realised this was much more than a kids' movie - it's also a movie for fans of movies in general and also for older kids who are fans of reading.  In fact I think this movie is not very suitable for younger kids, being quite long and full of extended dramatic scenes.

This is an adaptation of Brian Selznick's illustrated kids' book "The Adventures of Hugo Cabret" but having not read the book previously I can't tell you how close the movie sticks to the book.  It does, however, stick fairly close to many aspects of the real story of early filmmaker and effects pioneer Georges Melies who made over 500 movies in the late 1800s and early 1900s, without being about him at all.  Note the movie is in English with no subtitles and most of the 'French' people have English accents.  Don't hold it against them though, it makes the film more accessible I guess.

The movie follows a young orphan, Hugo Cabret, who lives in a secret apartment inside the walls of a bustling Paris train station in the 1930s and keeps the clocks and other mechanical aspects of the building running after the disappearance of his uncle.  Hugo seems to have a fantastical life but the young boy is very sad and lonely with no family or friends and constantly having to evade the strict stationmaster who enjoys handing young thieves over to the orphanage.  His only "friend" is an automaton (a self-operating machine) that his clockmaker father rescued from a museum and was trying to work with Hugo to fix until his untimely passing.  Hugo's mission to fix the automaton is frustrated by a missing heart shape key and some other missing parts, which leads him to a showdown with the owner of a mechanical toy shop in the station.  Befriending Papa George's god-daughter Isabelle leads Hugo on the adventure of a lifetime as they unravel the mystery of the connection between the automaton and Papa George, who turns out to be the once renowned and now forgotten filmmaker Georges Melies.

If that seems long and involved, it's really only a sketch of the complex plot and doesn't even touch on the sub-plots of the characters in the train station that Hugo encounters each day.  The plot though is not even the most important thing in this movie, as it is simply a way into the major themes: the magic of movies, how we should respect things of the past rather than always look for the latest new thing, finding your purpose in life.  The second half of the film is a completely enchanting flip through the history of early filmmaking, taking in the Lumiere brothers who kicked off moving pictures with short, realistic films and how this influenced Georges Melies who was previously a magician but then wrote/directed/starred in a massive number of films that tried to explore our dreams rather than reality, plus a look at early classics The Kid, The General, Safety Last!, The Box of Pandora amongst many others.  I was totally blown away by this section of the film.

It's definitely not going to appeal to everyone, and it already looks like it's going to be deemed a commercial flop (budget of $170million and gross of $55million to date) but this movie is completely enchanting and wonderful if you're into books, movies and big words (an ongoing joke in the movie is Isabelle using big words that Hugo doesn't understand).  So right up my ally!  But it does have a number of good things going for it that might appeal to others as well:

1) Great performances all round - Asa Butterfield is perfectly sad and wide eyed but not too cute as Hugo, Chloe Moretz (Hit Girl from Kick Ass) is bold and smart as Isabelle, Sacha Baron Cohen is funny but touching at the same time as the Stationmaster and Ben Kingsley as Georges Melies is grumpy but wonderful.  Ben Kingsley even looks a bit like the real life Georges Melies!!!

2) Great,subtle use of 3D to create a completely fantastical, immersive experience without anything waving at you.  Plus you get to see early films transformed into a 3D like effect!

3) Typical strong Scorsese direction and storytelling.  Plus a cameo from the man himself - see if you spot it (kudos to Ben who did - I missed it).

I really loved this movie so please give it a chance.  It's not nominated for 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, for nothing!