Film: Hugo

GENRE: Adventure/Family/Drama
RATING: PG for mild thematic material
RUNTIME: 2 hour and 6 minutes
STARRING: Asa Butterfield (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas)
Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) Ben Kingsley (Schindler’s List)
DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese (The Aviator, Gangs of New York)
WRITER: John Logan (The Aviator, Gladiator, Rango)
PLOT: An orphan who lives in a train station finds a key that will not only start an invention but also reveal a filmmaker’s past.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:
1 The cinematography in this film is magical. The opening scene is mesmerizing as the camera winds its way through the train station. Scorsese captures so much on the screen, even the dust in the air.
2 This film should win for best art direction. The train station is practically a character with all its depth. The beautiful art direction is nicely shown in the bookstore alone. The stacks of colourful books are so carefully strewn about it’s a work of art. I also have always loved seeing gears turn inside a clock.
3 As a media teacher, the early movie references were a treat. The making of A Trip to the Moon and clips of Safety Last tie in perfectly to my class discussions. You can tell that Scorsese loves the history of film and film restoration.
4 Scorsese finally made a film his grandkids can enjoy. Unfortunately, he didn’t take their attention spans into account. As beautiful as this film is, the pace is really slow and the running time is thirty minutes too long even with all the Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Sweeny Todd) comic relief.
5 While talking to my wife after the film, we were trying to pin down why we didn’t find it as magical as it could be. We realized it was the music. It didn’t grab us like it should. Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings) has done so much better.

RECOMMENDATION: It's on DVD soon
UPCOMING REVIEWS: The Artist