I may see another film better than Martin Scorsese's HUGO this year but I doubt if I'll see one I like as much.Reviews of the film seem to be divided between those who find it boring and those who, like me, are enchanted by it. Having read many reviews by the dislikers it was noticeable that many simply had no idea who Georges Melies was. It is Melies, rather than the boy Hugo, who is at the heart of this movie. Because of this, under Scorsese's direction, the film becomes a tribute to the great French movie pioneer and innovator and both in subject and, in the technical aspects of the film itself, a hymn to the wonder and magic of movies. Performances, even in minor roles are superb with Ben Kingsley a more than convincing Melies and Sacha Baron Cohen turning in a wonderful comedy performace as the Station Inspector. Richard Griffiths, Frances De La Tour, Ray Winston, Jude Law and Christopher Lee add to a cast of characters who could have stepped from the pages of Dickens. Special praise must be saved for the younger members of the cast who, under Scorsese's direction, avoid the mawkish sentiment that could have sunk the film so quickly: Asa Butterfield is excellent as Hugo and Chloe Grace Moretz effortlessly claws her way up the ladder to true stardom with another performance that shows her as one of the most versatile young actresses around. Rating *****
2 comments:
Funny how the so-called "information age" finds the majority of people laughably UNinformed. Not know who George Melies is INDEED!!!! Pathetic, people, pathetic. ESPECIALLY if they're writing reviews of this film!!! We'd be much better reading Weaverman's reviews since he KNOWS what HE'S talking about!
This is a film I've not watched as yet but it's just moved to the top of my "queue".
Oddly, although the film plot about the kid Hugo is total fiction the film does have a strong factual basis in the "rediscovery" of Papa Georges in his Paris toyshop by such film-makers as Franju much in the same way Scorsese and Coppola did with Michael Powell. There seems to bea sort of weird continuity as Franju and Powell were very much "heirs" of the Melies tradition.
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