I’m not a slow witted man. Really. I’m much brighter than I appear to be. I usually pick out a good movie from previews alone. It’s almost always in the subtext of a preview. The parts that are not being said/ shown. If you can find that, you can usually piece together a movie’s overall plot before the first film cell ever passes in front of the projector light. So, when I saw a preview for HUGO I figured that it would be a great kid’s movie that the film company wanted to release the same weekend as Twilight to pick up the younger audiences. My wife, being the wise soul that she is, said “HUGO looks good. We should check it out”. I’m glad she did, because this movie has so much more to offer than just a “kid’s film”. Maybe I am slow witted.
Plot: Hugo (Butterfield) is a boy that lives in a hapless world. He lives along in a train station and his job is to keep the clocks running. Well, actually it is his uncle’s job, but he has not seen his uncle in weeks. Poor and hungry, Hugo steals most of the things that he needs from the shops located at the train station. One day, while trying to steal a toy windup mouse, he is caught by the shop keeper (Kingsley). It is revealed that he was only looking for spare parts to finish an automaton that was left to him by his father. Clues begin to show that a there is a connection between the Hugo, the automaton and the shopkeeper. The story that connects those clues is a tale of magic, love and enchantment.
Sometimes a movie gets lost in its need to prove how deep it is. The refreshing thing about this movie is that it is simple and deep all at the same time. There is some wonderful acting in this film. Ben Kingsley is amazing, as always, and shows why he is one of the more respected actors in the industry today.
Worth the admission? Absolutely! Hugo is exactly what I needed to see this week. The effects are amazing, the acting is top notch, and Martin Scorsese, a man known more for producing/directing dramas, really adds some emotion to the scenes with the way he shoots the film. Overall, I can’t think of a better movie to watch going into Holiday/Christmas Season. Except for Elf……and maybe Christmas Vacation.
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