Hugo
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Chloe Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Jude Law
Director: Martin Scorsese
Rating: 3.5/5
It’s always exciting when a Martin Scorsese movie graces the big screen and we haven’t seen him helm a feature film since Shutter Island - however he has been dabbling with documentary and TV.
And with Hugo the Oscar winning filmmaker tackles the world of 3D for the very first time - the family movie is also a bit of a departure from the types of movies that we are use to seeing Scorsese make.
"Hugo" tells the story of an orphan boy living a secret life in the walls of a Paris train station.
With the help of an eccentric girl, he searches for the answer to a mystery linking the father he recently lost, the ill-tempered toy shop owner living below him and a heart shaped lock, seemingly without a key.
Brian Selznick’s novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret is brought to life by Scorsese and his talented cast and this is just the type of movie that you love to see at the time of year.
There is a real charm to Hugo and this largely thanks to the world that Scorsese has created - visually this movie is just beautiful.
Paris comes alive under the watchful eye of Scorsese’s special effects with some beautiful shots of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.
As well as looking great there are also some very colourful characters with a great central performance from Asa Butterfield as Hugo.
The young actor carries the movie well and delivers a very moving performance as a young forgotten boy who fights hard to finish the work that his father began.
Another stunning turn comes from Ben Kingsley, a man who is trying to get away from the past, but there is a very genuine relationship that develops between him and Hugo.
In fact the most interesting and moving parts of this movie don’t involve Hugo at all it is the story of Kingsley’s character George Melies that really is so riveting and wonderful.
And it is with this storyline that Scorsese delivers a very powerful message - cinema and movies should never be forgotten but preserved for generations to come to enjoy.
Sacha Baron Coen is brilliant as the station inspector as he brings the comic relief to the movie - the scene in the bath with the dog is just cinema gold!
However the likes of Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee and Jude Law are all desperately underused which is a major shame.
The main problem with Hugo is the multiple story lines don’t always sit too well together - there is a feeling at times that this is two different movies.
Also the pacing of the movie is very slow and it is a movie that you really do have to have a lot of patience with - whether this will keep younger audiences engaged I am not quite sure.
Without a doubt Hugo does contain a huge amount of charm but it perhaps doesn’t quite have all the heart and magic that I was expecting.
But there are some good performances in the film and while it doesn’t quite hit the dizzy heights that it promised it’s a sweet-natured movie that you can’t help but enjoy.
Hugo is out now FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Martin Scorsese