Martin Scorsese's Visual Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (12 April 2012)

Hugo, the title character, is an orphaned boy that lives inside Paris' train station where he's in charge of making sure that all the clocks run as clockwork. It's an assignment that he takes with the most regard and is very passionate about. He lives secretly behind these clocks looking onto the passerbys that have become as part of his daily routine, a part of his own little world: enters the flower girl bringing her fresh cut flowers to sell in the station, enters the station inspector wearing a prosthetic leg (played by Sasha baron Cohen) and his loyal Doberman dog, or an older couple that never really seem to get their relationship off the ground due to her vicious little dog. Among these characters there's one in particular: George Méliès (Ben Kingsley) who runs a shop full of magic tricks and toys. He observes the man and is curious as to what makes the man such a "scrooge".
In the first few minutes, Hugo believes that George Méliès is an evil man. After all, he takes away his precious notebook away from the boy and attempts at turning Hugo to the authorities for no apparent reason. There is, however, something that piques George's interest: a drawing of a "automaton" a.k.a. robot. He questions the boy as to how he came about this notebook and, when Hugo refuses to answer him, he takes the notebook away from him and threatens to burn it. I remember being saddened by George's actions but I also wondered: what made his so upset? Why did he want to know about the notebook? What events took place to blacken his heart and make him so bitter about everything? READ FULL REVIEW AT MY BLOG ITALO'S CORNER