Mechanical Toys for Happiness

Rating: 8/10 (19 February 2012)

The clocks are wound up. Things are fixed: first a toy mouse, then a robotand then people ("We must fix Papa George!" decide Hugo and Isabel). Scorsese's film is an enormous mechanical toy. Even those who, in the beginning, appear evil, become good in the end. And everyone revolves, as if they were wound up, within one small space (the train station and Melies' home near that same train station) because a wound-up toy's path also has a constricted space. The purpose of toys, unless they are made by some sort of Scrooge-like Dickens character, is, after all, happiness. This film is made with the same purpose. We can be happy for the old movie director whose becomes lighter once he is rid of the desire to hide his past in a dresser. We can be happy for the orphan boy who finally finds his home. We can be happy for the film historian-professor who had long ago buried his idol but now meets him alive and well. We can be happy for the two comical but very joyful pairs of lovers.
It is so easy to be happy for all of them and for some time to feel the happiness within yourself as well! You can then proceed further in your life, smiling, as long as the key within you is still turning and winding.