May 262013
Hugo (Three-disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy)
- Recommended Age: 6 years and up
Welcome to a magical world of spectacular adventure! When wily and resourceful Hugo discovers a secret left by his father, he unlocks a mystery and embarks on a quest that will transform those around him and lead to a safe and loving place he can call home. Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese invites you to experience a thrilling journey that critics are calling “the stuff that dreams are made of.” *Peter Travers, Rolling StoneIn resourceful orphan Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield,
List Price: $ 54.99
Price: $ 25.00
_This_ is why we go to the movies,
Different people go to the movies for different reasons. Some of us want to be entertained. Some of us want to be dazzled. Some of us want to be engaged by a story, or by characters that stick in the mind after the film is done. Some of us want to be transported to a different time or place. And some of us want to see talented actors create a bit of magic in the hands of a masterful director. Martin Scorsese’s Hugo does all of these things. It is, more than any other film I’ve seen this year, _why_ we go to the movies.
The film is based on the novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. If you’ve read the book, then you know the story already, but for everyone else I am going to be careful here and not reveal anything that might spoil the film. I will say that Hugo is about many things, but at its heart, it is about obsession, discovery and how one person’s story can lead to – and become entwined with – another’s.
The film is set in Paris in the 1930′s, in a railway station where an orphan boy named Hugo (engagingly played by Asa Butterfield) lives in the workspaces in the station walls and in the station’s central clocktower. He spends most of his time keeping the station’s clocks running (so that no one will come into the walls or the tower and discover his hiding places) and pursuing his obsession – fixing a man-shaped automaton designed to write with a pen which his father (Jude Law) had found in a museum and was trying to repair when he was killed in a fire. To feed himself, Hugo scrounges and pilfers food from the various food shops in the station, which draws the attention of the station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen). To feed his efforts to repair the automaton, Hugo steals parts from a toy shop in the station, run by the elderly Papa Georges (Ben Kingsley), who finally catches him in the act. He is befriended though by Papa Georges’ god-daughter, a girl his age named Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz), who ends up helping Hugo pursue his obsession of fixing the automaton. Which, Hugo is convinced, has some secret message for him left by his late father. Where this ultimately leads… you’ll have to see the film. Telling you here would only ruin the film’s joy of discovery.
There are so many good things about Hugo as a film that it’s hard to know where to begin. I can at least start by saying that the look of the film itself is dazzling. Scorsese creates worlds within worlds, taking you first back to Paris in the 1930′s and from there into Hugo’s hidden world within the walls and clock tower of the train station. And from there, other places that are equally wondrous. The 3D is not wasted here and truly adds to the feel of Hugo’s world of narrow passages and massive time-keeping mechanisms with their enormous but intricate gears, springs and pendulums all in motion. And Howard Shore’s beautifully crafted musical score evokes the period throughout the film, adding to the feeling of being transported to a different time and place.
Another thing that makes Hugo so worth seeing is that Scorsese is one of those directors who can bring out the best performance an actor has in them, which he does a magnificent job of here, from veteran actors like Ben Kingsley and Christopher Lee to comparative newcomers like Asa Butterfield and Chloë Grace Moretz.
And just as the look of the sets shows his attention to detail, the populating of the world with characters shows it as well as he makes the train station come alive with its regular denizens, from Sacha Boren Cohen’s officious station inspector with his leg brace and the pretty young flower seller Lisette (Emily Mortimer) he secretly yearns for, to the comic attempts at romance between Monsieur Frick (Richard Griffiths), an elderly newspaper seller who keeps attempting to woo Madame Emile (Frances de la Tour), a cafe owner who dotes on her dog who unfortunately attacks Monsieur Frick every time he comes near. Scorsese also works in some famous historical Parisian residents of the period into the background, like jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt (Emil Lager), artist Salvador Dali (Ben Addis) and writer James Joyce (Robert Gill).
Highly, highly recommended for anyone who enjoys movies, and an absolute must-see for anyone who loves movies and what they mean to us.
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No-Spoilers review of the 3D movie and the coming 2D DVD,
Few read reviews to find out whether the reviewer liked the film. They want to know whether THEY will like the film–to decide whether to see the movie or not, and whether to see it in the theater or wait and see the DVD (or the download). That’s the task I’ll take on here.
As the Rottentomato website has already shown (it assembles and correlates scads of reviews from the press and the web, along with reader responses), the critics adore this film, the audience somewhat less so.
Part of this has to do with managing expectations. The marketing presents Hugo as an Avatar-ish 3D fantasy with a C3P0 (StarWars)-type flying robot. this is actively misleading, though that’s not the director’s fault.
What Hugo is, is a fable–not a fantasy–that’s part tween adventure and part infomercial for the preservation and viewing of old silent movies. Most importantly–and this is a point that hasn’t been made by most reviewers here and elsewhere–it’s a film about ex-magician/early filmmaker Georges Meliés that Scorsese made, to a degree, IN THE STYLE of a Georges Meliés movie. That’s part of the homage.
Thus “Hugo” contains a lot of adventurous running-around, a brilliant exploitation of the best 3D filmmaking technology extant, and a leavening of slapstick elements–particularly from the surprisingly restrained Sascha Baron Cohen.
It’s a fable based on real events in the early history of movies. “Sleepless in Seattle” was a fable with no fantasy elements other than its happy-ending-inevitability, which you feel from beginning to end. That’s the essence of a fable, not whether it has fantasy elements or not. A fable is a kind of ritual that reaffirms the tribe’s values and faith in its vision of life.
Hugo reaffirms faith in goodness–that even in many apparently hard-hearted people there’s an ember that can be fanned into life by the right person. The movie’s vibe from its first seconds tells you that you are riding towards a happy ending.
Two Russian intellectuals that I saw the movie with hated that fact. They think a movie is unrealistic unless everyone’s doomed, and if you’d grown up in the Soviet Union that was probably realistic. Especially since Soviet-era fable-movies did guarantee a happy ending–”happy” as defined by Soviet ideology at least. So for my friends. fables aren’t just false, but evil State Propaganda. And a lot of Americans who fancy themselves intellectual have a similarly jaundiced perspective about Hollywood’s addiction to guaranteed by hook or by crook happy endings.
I think this issue stems from not understanding the ritual validity of fable. I love realistic movies without this guarantee of happy outcomes, but I also love a good fable. I’m certain of my spouse’s love for me and of my love for her. I’m certain of our relationship with our closest friends, as they are of us reciprocally. I’m certain of the law-abidingness of my society (especially compared to the third-world countries we’ve traveled in). Predictable good outcomes are, within reasonable constraints, reasonable to believe in, in many ways.
So “Hugo”‘s ultimate predictability is a valid artistic choice. It’s not a spoiler to say this because you know it from the start and you should know so you don’t confuse this with a Sundance-type art film where everyone is confused and faces an uncertain future, usually alone. I apologize for “Hugo” not being a slit-your-wristsathon. I also like such films, and they usually set your expectations from the start as well, for that matter.
So who will enjoy “Hugo” ?
1. Bright tweens. It stars a pair of bright tweens, so this is a natural. Many younger kids will like it as well–it’s visually a treat, and it is based on a kids’ story. But duller/much younger/Disneyfied kids who want nonstop action and/or the relentless cheerful action of a Disney film will probably find their attention wandering in places.
2. Everyone who’s interested in the history of filmmaking–particularly right at the beginning.
3. Everyone who’s interested in modern filmmaking. This does represent the absolute state of the art in 3D cinematography–where its 3Dness is integral and almost taken for granted, not tacked on, not poke-you-in-the-eye, not several layers of 2D images.
4. Everyone who’s interested in good fable direction/screenwriting/acting. This is not to say anyone involved in this project can’t do naturalistic films or fantasy films, or, in the case of Chloe Grace Moretz, naturalistic fantasy films (“Let me in”). So no negatives are proven here. That said, I believe the casting was spot on for the major and minor roles. This is one area where Scorsese didn’t copy the stagy mugging of Meliés’ films (except during re recreations of those films). The large, intent close-ups of the major characters really exposed their acting chops, and all came…
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Early review on blu-ray 3D,
I was able to legitimately get an early review copy of the 3D version of the Hugo 3D blu-ray. I am not reviewing the film. I am not reviewing the acting. I am reviewing the 3D. It is incredible. Every bit as engrossing as it was in the theater. If you own a 3DTV, you owe it to yourself to buy this movie. Sure, the film itself is not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re just looking for reference quality, mind-blowing 3D? This movie will suck you in from start to finish. You are a part of the world of Hugo, from beginning to end. And, honestly, no 3D has been this engrossing since Avatar. If you love silent film, film preservation, or cinema in general, along with your three dimensions, this will be the absolute must own disc of the year! Even if they don’t like the movie itself, your friends will be impressed with the 3D FX. This is one of the few films released where you can genuinely and proudly claim, “This is why I bought a 3D television!” Enjoy.
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