Hugo [2011 film]

A cosy little family drama about an orphaned by living in secret at a train station, and the way his life is coincidentally but intrinsically linked to that of an old, disillusioned old man running a toy shop on the same station. Well scripted and superbly acted and with gorgeous visuals, my main complaint is that it is a good 20-30 minutes longer than the story warrants, with way too much time spent on slow, quiet moments where most could easily be halved without ruining their effects, as well as a couple of longer dream sequences that should have been drastically shorter. There are also some fairly pointless minor subplots about tertiary characters on the station which slow things down further, but I feel these all add a certain charm show more and depth to the film, and am willing to forgive the time spent on these. show less

So much of the period detail is really lovely and the tracking shots are extraordinary. The story is good, too, and it is about movies.

A mechanically-inclined orphan lives in the walls of a train station.

It's very much like Shutter Island, in that it's just a sack full of its genre's cliches, strung together to no particular effect. The only parts I enjoyed - quite unexpectedly - were the two or three scenes of Sacha Baron Cohen's romantic subplot.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: C

Enjoyment: C

GPA: 2.2/4

skipped through as just didn't get it

Orphaned and alone except for an uncle, Hugo Cabret lives in the walls of a train station in 1930s Paris. Hugo's job is to oil and maintain the station's clocks, but to him, his more important task is to protect a broken automaton and notebook left to him by his late father. Accompanied by the goddaughter of an embittered toy merchant, Hugo embarks on a quest to solve the mystery of the automaton and find a place he can call home.
(source: TMDb)

Orphaned and alone except for an uncle, Hugo Cabret lives in the walls of a train station in 1930s Paris. Hugo's job is to oil and maintain the station's clocks, but to him, his more important task is to protect a broken automaton and notebook left to him by his late father. Accompanied by the goddaughter of an embittered toy merchant, Hugo embarks on a quest to solve the mystery of the automaton and find a place he can call home.
(source: TMDb)

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