Hugo (2011)

I am being pushed to write reviews for this film, Puss in Boots, and The Muppets, so I am skipping over some of the films on my quota so I can review Hugo, one of the best films of the year. Directed by legendary director Martin Scorsese, Hugo is based off of the Caldecott-winning novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. Starring Asa Butterfield (who is playing Ender in the upcoming adaptation of the science fiction novel Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card) as Hugo Cabret, a boy who is living inside of a train station in 1930s Paris. Orphaned after his father (Jude Law) was killed in a fire, Hugo spends his days winding the clocks, and tinkering with the last contraption his father was working on before he died, all while trying to stay out of an orphanage by avoiding the people who would put him there, especially toy tinker with a secret Georges (Ben Kingsley) and the train inspector (Sasha Baron Cohen). While living in his magical world, he is caught by Georges, and is forced to work for him, all while having a growing friendship with Georges god-daughter (I’m messing that up somehow, I just know it) Isabelle (played by the absolutely wonderful Chloë Grace Moretz). As Hugo and Isabelle grow closer together, they work through this wonderful adventure played out in front of them. The film is an adventure, a slower one than most of its kin, but an adventure full in form. It’s probably more of an adventure drama, and not a movie for kids. This is a film that may be rated PG, but it is not a film for children. It is a film for people who love film and the art of film, and I am one of those people. Studio analysts say that Hugo is going to scrape the bottom of the barrel box-office wise, and that makes sense. I saw this film in a double feature with The Muppets, and The Muppets was completely packed with small, annoying, screaming children. Hugo was about half-way filled on opening day. Hugo is going to lose money, at least in America. While that disappoints me, I am not surprised. This is a brilliant film, one I believe in and one I will watch many times over. The directing and writing is fabulous (Martin Scorsese will never do wrong), and the acting and visuals are absolutely perfect (Asa Butterfield does amazing, and I’m also kind of in love with Chloë Grace Moretz [also, in case you’ve forgotten, I’m 13 years old, a year younger than she is], so I might be biased, but she and the entire cast are still amazing). This entire movie is amazing, brilliant, wonderful, and magical. Honestly, this is the first movie all year that made me cry a little bit at the end. The only reason this isn’t my favorite film of the year is that it took about twenty minutes until the film won me over, where my favorite film of the year, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris took about two. The film is slow, and I do not recommend this as a kid’s film. I recommend this as a film for those who love the art and who just want to see a good film, something that seems to happen less often than it used too.
9.5/10