2011, Paramount Pictures
Live action
Rating: PG
Approx. 125 mins.
THE STORY:
Having already lost his mother, young Hugo (Asa Butterfield) is orphaned when his father (Jude Law) dies in a freak accident. He is forced to join his largely absent Uncle Claude (Ray Winstone) as the clock technician at Paris' central train station. All he has salvaged of his previous life is a broken automaton that he and his father had been fixing. Believing it has the power to communicate some message from his father, Hugo continues to work on it.
Hugo uses parts he steals on forays to the station toy store when he tries to evade the station inspector, Gustav (Sacha Baron Cohen) who would send him to the orphanage. Instead he is caught by the store owner, Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley), who punishes him by confiscating his notebook containing his father's plans for the automaton. His need to get it back leads him into the lives of Georges, his wife and his adopted daughter, Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz). He discovers a coincidental connection between his automaton and Georges, and sets out to help the latter regain the passion and respect he once held.
Hugo uses parts he steals on forays to the station toy store when he tries to evade the station inspector, Gustav (Sacha Baron Cohen) who would send him to the orphanage. Instead he is caught by the store owner, Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley), who punishes him by confiscating his notebook containing his father's plans for the automaton. His need to get it back leads him into the lives of Georges, his wife and his adopted daughter, Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz). He discovers a coincidental connection between his automaton and Georges, and sets out to help the latter regain the passion and respect he once held.
QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:
- brief discussion about a man having relations with his wife
VIOLENCE:
- Hugo's father is killed in a fiery explosion-- not shown in detail but overtly referenced visually and verbally
- there are 2 scenes in which Hugo is at risk of being hit by a train
TEACHING POINTS:
- nothing really overt, just lots of emphasis on people being more than they may first appear
THE UPSHOT:
The grown ups in the room loved this one. It's whimsical, imaginative, plausible. It's fabulously acted and beautifully shot/ animated. It tells a number of stories simultaneously without confusion or compromises. But my favourite thing was the way it truly introduces us to so many diverse, fully-dimensional characters, sometimes with barely any words or within a very short space of time.
The 5 year-old in the room liked it, but some of the dialogue, themes and details were over her head. Older kids will definitely get more out of it, but visually there is a lot to appeal to the younger set.
I recommend this not as a kids' movie, but as a human movie. For people who like character studies, for people interested in film as a medium, for people who like a film to capture a time and place completely, for people who just like good movies.
The 5 year-old in the room liked it, but some of the dialogue, themes and details were over her head. Older kids will definitely get more out of it, but visually there is a lot to appeal to the younger set.
I recommend this not as a kids' movie, but as a human movie. For people who like character studies, for people interested in film as a medium, for people who like a film to capture a time and place completely, for people who just like good movies.
4.5/5
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