A film to be appreciated at multiple levels

Rating: 9/10 (5 December 2011)

At face level, this is the thrilling narrative of (fictional) young, newly orphaned Hugo Cabret's attempt to complete the automaton/robot his recently deceased father was restoring and how that brings Hugo's life and that of (real person) Georges Méliès, the French giant of early movie-making, into more and more conflict--but eventually satisfying contact with each other.
'Movies are like dreams that interweave fantasies with realities.'
At a deeper level, "Hugo" is Scorsese's homage and paeans to Méliès (actual episodes of many of Méliès' restored films are shown along with Scorsese's view of their making)--AND to ALL of movie-making. (Wikipedia's article on Georges Méliès helps define where Scorsese's version is surprisingly true to life and the few places it isn't; knowing this before seeing the film will increase its enjoyment for most viewers.)
'Movies are like dreams that interweave fantasies with realities.'
The more familiarity viewers have with movies across the past 110+ years, the more they'll be gratified by Scorsese's references to their power plus reminiscences of bygone actors and scenes; he interweaves these allusions into the face value narrative. As examples--
--several bits hint at the boy-girl romances in many movies: will this station security master & flower girl get together?
--In a similar vignette, the man who gets a dog to win a lady's interest is a lookalike double of S.Z.("Cuddles") Sakall who played many feel-good bit parts in '40s-'50s movies.
--One scene has Hugo reprising silent film's Harold Lloyd ("Safety Last") hanging on the hand of a clock far above a city's street.
--Etc., etc.
'Movies are like dreams that interweave fantasies with realities.'
At its deeper levels, "Hugo" is Scorsese's reminder of how important motion pictures have become in our lives.
My rating, 8.5 of 10, may be revised up. :)