Hugo
*** (out of 4 stars)
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace-Moretz, Ben Kingsley, and Sacha Baron Cohen
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Rated PG for mild thematic material, some action/peril and smoking
Though Martin Scorsese’s Hugo has been marketed as a “family film,” I can assure you that only the young ones who have taken a shine to cinema will really get something out of it. Yet some critics seem to be reviewing Hugo based on what it’s marketed as, versus what it actually is. What Hugo isn’t, is a homogenized romp that is “fun for the whole family,” as the marketing would have you believe. What it actually is, is a family-friendly celebration of the human touch that made the silent-era of cinema so special, and indeed makes a great deal of art so charming. Aesthetically, Hugo is a very modern film, making liberal use of CGI and 3D effects, yet it uses today’s technology to create a magical lens through with it looks back fondly on a time when a special effect was created by the simple act splicing two frames together with glue.
Based on the acclaimed children’s novel by Brian Selznick, Hugo stars Asa Butterfield in the titular role, an orphan boy who secretly maintains the clocks in a sprawling Parisian train station, only emerging to pilfer nourishment from the various food vendors. Hugo spends his spare time attempting to repair an intricate mechanical automaton, an activity that gives him a certain connection to his late father (Jude Law). To get parts for his quest, he attempts to steal gears from small toys at a shop run by a cranky-yet-sorrowful old man (Ben Kingsley). After befriending the man’s goddaughter, Isabelle (Chloe-Grace Moretz), the two discover that the toy peddler may be much more than the sad curmudgeon they see on the surface.
Hugo is immediately an eye-catcher, as Scorsese depicts and intricate, mechanical 3D world, opening the film with a swooping tracking shot that proves to the audience that he’s not just another one of the endless stream of hacks using 3D as a mere distraction. Normally 3D is an additive that only provides empty calories to a moviegoing experience, yet Scorsese makes the most purposeful use of it since Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams. And as we see a master experiment with new technology, he uses it in service of a piece that gives a serious amount of respect given to silent cinema, as well as the inventive nature of capturing special effects in-camera. Here, Scorsese is attempting to wow us with new technology in the medium, not unlike the early pioneers did as they explored the possibilities of storytelling on film, and his encyclopedic knowledge of film grammar makes his use of 3D exciting, as opposed to simply distracting.
There’s a scene where Hugo sneaks Isabelle in to see her first movie, that movie being Safety Last, starring Harold Lloyd. Isabelle finds herself breathless at the sight of the iconic scene in which Lloyd finds himself dangling from a clock (a scene Hugo later re-creates, as indicated by the poster). Like other great silent clowns such as Buster Keaton, Lloyd did his death-defying stunts for real. In some ways, this highlights a problem with Hugo, in that Sacha Baron Cohen’s station inspector, whose antics resemble that of a silent clown, fail to reach their comic potential (mainstream comedians today lack the physical grace of Keaton, Lloyd or Chaplin, as today’s funnymen seem to only care about their prowess at improv). Yet Scorsese’s genuine affection for this era of filmmaking comes through at the movie’s core, hitting that emotional sweet-spot of movie-love that many filmmakers have reached for and fallen short (Be Kind Rewind comes to mind). To reveal the source of this joy in the plot would be to spoil the fun of the movie, but if you know anything about early silent cinema, there are big surprises the plot in store for you.
Hugo is going to be a box office flop (something that will no doubt be confirmed by the time this review goes up), and some have already begun dancing on its grave for being a PG movie, made by a decidedly R-rated filmmaker like Scorsese (so-called “criticism” that deserves to be called what it is: worthless, dime-store snark). This is certainly a film that comes off as an overly-cultured adult’s idea of what kind of a movie kids should enjoy, and in reality, most won’t know what to make of it (the little ones in my screening seemed restless by the end). But don’t let this deter you. Hugo is entrenched in early film history and culture, but the plot allows the audience to discover it along with the characters. Given that Hugo will no doubt quickly come and go from theaters, it’s one you should go ahead and discover it for yourself on the big screen before it’s gone.
