HUGO isn’t your typical Martin Scorsese film; For a start its isn’t violent or features the Mafia; Secondly it’s about family and filmmaking; Thirdly or lastly, it’s a children’s film. Anyway does all of above really matter? No, it doesn’t! It’s a refreshing change to see Scorsese tackle a film without blood or gore, as HUGO seems the perfect fit for The RAGING BULL and GOODFELLARS director as his directorial sensibilities can’t be faulted technically here as the material suits Scorsese down to a fine art, as Scorsese’s films weren’t always about violence, but needed violence to hammer home its message. HUGO doesn’t need that to get to the heart of the message and by the end of the film its clear what the message is. But that would be telling? Anyway HUGO (I Saw the 2D version) is an outstanding achievement in Fantasy filmmaking and sets another high benchmark for future Fantasy films to follow. Until then, HUGO is by rights the ultimate Fantasy film. Based on the Award Winning best-selling novel by Brian Selznick, HUGO follows orphan boy Hugo Cabret (sensational Asa Butterfield, THE BOY IN THE STRIPPED PYJAMAS) who after the death of his father (a very brief Jude Law, always good value) is sent to live with his drunk uncle (a very uncomfortable Ray Winstone, minus the C word) in the walls within the clock tower overlooking the Paris railway station in 1931. LET ME IN and KICK-ASS’S superbly talented child actor Chloe Grace Moretz (back to fantastic form after her dismal performance in the uneven Crime Thriller TEXAS KILLING FIELDS) plays Isabella, the girl Hugo befriends in order to find the missing parts for mechanical man his late father has left for him. Isabella’s Grandfather George Melies (an amazing Ben Kingsley) was a magician turned filmmaker and made over 100 films, dating back as the early pioneer of early cinema, such as the cult Silent Sci Fi Classic A TRIP TO THE MOON, with that iconic picture of the Moon with a telescope on the right eye. The reconstruction of Melies’s films are truly fantastic and amazingly and magically brought to life with Scorsese’s trademark visual style and old-fashioned flair. A classy British cast provides the talent, with Kingsley taking centre stage and overall gives the best performance, with the wonderfully talented Butterfield and American Moretz sporting a terrific British accent slightly behind. Also Sacha Baron Cohen gives a wonderfully zany performance as the injured train chief inspector sporting a wooden cast on his leg. Beautifully designed, lavishly lite and exquisitely photographed, HUGO is an absolutely magnificently looking film that’s outstanding on every single artistic level. Martin Scorsese’s wonderfully surreal tribute to the Golden Age of early filmmaking is a flawless Fantasy masterpiece that shouldn’t be missed on any account.
RICK
