Martin Scorsese's 3-D 'Hugo': movie review
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Martin Scorsese鈥檚 3-D 鈥淗ugo鈥 is, at least on the surface, an improbable choice for the director best known for films like 鈥Taxi Driver鈥 and 鈥Raging Bull.鈥 Based on Brian Selznick鈥檚 acclaimed and richly illustrated children鈥檚 book 鈥The Invention of Hugo Cabret,鈥 with a screenplay by John Logan, it tells the story of the eponymous young orphan (Asa Butterfield) in 1930s France who maintains, in secret, the clocks at a major train station in Paris.
With the death of his father (Jude Law, seen in flashbacks) and his alcoholic uncle (Ray Winstone), 12-year-old Hugo struggles to survive poverty and hunger while steering clear of the martinet inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) who prowls the station and wants to put the boy in an orphanage. He also labors to fix a life-size automaton that, once repaired, might transmit a message from his father.聽
Hugo鈥檚 biggest nemesis, at least for a while, is a bitter old man (Ben Kingsley) who runs a toy shop in the station. Through a friendship with the man鈥檚 goddaughter Isabelle (Chlo毛 Grace Moretz), also a station habitu茅, Hugo finally strikes a connection with the sourpuss 鈥 who turns out to be none other than Georges M茅li猫s, one of the great pioneers of movies at the turn of the 20th century but now a forgotten relic. It is their shared love of magic 鈥 of bringing things to life 鈥 that animates both their friendship and this movie.
There are several reasons why, despite outward appearances, 鈥淗ugo鈥 is a more personal film than one might have anticipated from Scorsese (who, at 69, has a 12-year-old daughter). He has demonstrated in the past, especially in 鈥Kundun,鈥 his underrated film about the boyhood of the 14th Dalai Lama, a strong affinity for childhood wonderment. Also, Scorsese鈥檚 passion for film history and preservation is given full play here with the M茅li猫s material.
With all of this going for it, 鈥淗ugo鈥 is nevertheless an odd mixture: a deeply personal impersonal movie. The huge apparatus of Dante Ferretti鈥檚 production design, extraordinary as it is, along with the elaborate visual effects, are sometimes as much an impediment as a spur to the film鈥檚 flights of fancy. There鈥檚 a heaviness to this carefully appointed production, which, at 130 minutes, feels overlong. Scorsese fills out the train station sequences with too much overbearing scurrying and bustle. And Butterfield, as adept as he is, doesn鈥檛 quite have the transcendence to lift Hugo鈥檚 plight into the fantastical realms that Scorsese was reaching for.
But what comes through anyway, despite it all, is Scorsese鈥檚 childlike fascination with movies. His love of M茅li猫s, whose 1902 鈥淭rip to the Moon鈥 is iconic, is all of a piece with his adoration of the movie medium itself. This sort of ga-ga worship might be hard to take with most other directors, but Scorsese is no journeyman. He鈥檚 a major artist who, in trying to stretch himself, has attempted valiantly to put more of himself into this children鈥檚 fable than was apparent in several of his more highly touted or commercial works (like 鈥The Departed鈥 and 鈥Shutter Island,鈥 which had a been-there-done-that quality).聽
The 3-D effects in 鈥淗ugo,鈥 while not as boundary-breaking as one might have hoped for from Scorsese, are still way ahead of the curve. Unlike most directors who use the visual process as a gimmick, Scorsese brings us into the imagery with an understated elegance.
鈥淗ugo鈥 is a mixed bag but one well worth rummaging through. Grade:聽B+ (Rated PG for mild thematic material, some action/peril, and smoking.) 聽