Breathtaking

Rating: 9/10 (30 June 2017)

Reading some of the comments here, it appears the advertising for this was somewhat misleading, so people left the theater disappointed. I don't remember any advertising so I had no idea what to expect.
"Hugo" from 2011 is a Martin Scorsese film based on the Brian Selznick book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Set in 1931, 12-year-old Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) lives in Paris with his father (Jude Law), a widowed clockmaker who also works at a museum. He finds a broken automaton, a mechanical man designed to write with a pen, at the museum, and Hugo and he try to repair it, his father writing down various steps in his notebook. When his father is killed in a fire, Hugo goes to live with an alcoholic uncle (Ray Winstone) who maintains the clocks at the railway station of Gare Montparnase.
His uncle disappears one day, but Hugo stays on living in the clockworks and maintaining the clocks and steals items to repair the automaton. He also tries to avoid the Station Inspector Gustave (Sacha Baron Cohen) who will send him to an orphanage if he finds out his uncle is gone.
When Hugo is caught stealing from the toy store, the owner, Georges (Ben Kingsley) confiscates Hugo's notebook. Hugo enlists the help of Georges' goddaughter (Chloe Grace Moretz) to retrieve it. It turns out that her godfather is the famous Georges Melies, a magician and film director who was responsible for many technical developments in the early days of film, including special effects and time-lapse photography. And the automaton was his invention. When his films went out of style after World War I, he dropped out of sight and sold toys.
People went into this film expecting Hugo to have a great adventure, when in fact this is the story of George Melies and the very early days of film.
I can't describe how beautiful and astonishing this film is, a true awe-inspiring feast for the eyes in 3D. Scenes from early silent films shown in the movie are Méliès's actual works, such as Le voyage dans la lune (1902), and they are stunning. We also see Harold Lloyd hanging from the clock in Safety Last, and Hugo having to do this later. The film also depicts the Montparnasse derailment of 1895.
The acting is excellent, and though Butterfield's casting was criticized as being just because he was a beautiful child, I disagree. I think he was wonderful, as was Moretz. Ben Kingsley as the stern toy owner Georges who reveals himself as the heartbroken and brilliant Georges, is fantastic, and Helen McCrory is a standout as Georges' beautiful wife.
A true masterpiece, told in storybook fashion, not to be missed.