One wouldn't think the acclaimed director of such films as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Good Fellas and The Departed would have much interest in telling a kid-friendly fable of a 1930s-era orphan boy living in a Paris train station. But once you realize said fable centers around French film pioneer Georges Melies, the juxtaposition makes perfect sense.
Based on Brian Selznick's 2007 young adult novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Martin Scorsese's 22nd feature opens on a breathtaking panoramic shot of downtown Paris and quickly takes us inside the hustle and bustle of the city's sprawling locomotive depot.
From behind one of its many towering ornate clocks, we spy 12-year-old Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) eying an elderly shopkeeper's (Ben Kingsley) wind-up toy mouse. As the shopkeeper nods off, Hugo sees his opening and springs into action through the catacombs of the station and soon is standing before the napping merchant ready to snatch his prize. As he reaches, the shopkeeper awakens, grabs Hugo and demands he empty his pockets of all the other items he's stolen from the man in the past.
Amongst the pilfered gears and gadgets is a notebook containing sketches of a mysterious mechanical man Hugo and his clockmaker father had been fixing before the elder Cabret's death. The shopkeeper demands to know who drew the sketches and when Hugo refuses to answer, absconds with the notebook telling the boy he's going to burn it.
A terrified Hugo follows the old man home and soon he's enlisting the help of the shopkeeper's goddaughter Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz). Matters are complicated when Hugo discovers a key that hangs around Isabelle's neck fits the mechanical man. Investigating further, the pair come to realize the aging shopkeeper is actually visionary silent-era filmmaker and inventor Georges Melies, long thought dead since the end of World War I.
It seems Melies fell out of favor after the war and to survive was forced to live the remainder of his life in obscurity behind the counter of his depot shop. With the help of an admirative film scholar, Hugo and Isabelle set out to prove to Melies that he and his extraordinary creations still matter.
Scorsese is right at home in Selznick's world. Working with frequent cinematographer Robert Richardson, he embraces the period and setting whole-heartedly, employing all his considerable visual talents to dazzle us with the sumptuous details of the Paris station and its lovable, bumbling characters.
But it's his depiction of Melies' early life and films (including the seminal A Trip to the Moon) that truly makes Hugo a Scorsese picture. These images beautifully capture the birth of cinema and the sense of awe and wonder early films must have instilled in turn-of-the-century audiences. They reminded me of ones found in 2004's The Aviator and are clearly the product of someone deeply in love with the art of motion pictures.
Hugo is still a family movie at its core, though, and there's enough action and humor to keep the kids sufficiently entertained through its 127-minute running time. I saw the film in 2D and can only imagine all the treasures jutting out at you in 3D.
Butterfield and Moretz have nice chemistry as Hugo and Isabelle and Ben Kingsley infuses Melies with the perfect balance of intensity, warmth and creativity. Emily Mortimer and Christopher Lee provide nice supporting work as fellow station shopkeepers and Sacha Baron Cohen is marvelously effective as the weaselly station inspector.
Martin Scorsese's Hugo is a delightful valentine to imagination and the art of cinema and should inspire and enchant audiences for years to come.
