Ageless

Rating: 8/10 (4 May 2014)

Set in 1930s France, Hugo, is a film about a 12 year old boy, Hugo Cabret's (played by Asa Butterfield) quest to find answers about the mysterious death of his father. Hugo's father (Jude Law) was a clock repairman who was faced with the task of raising his son alone after the death of his wife. While Hugo was in school, his father still spent time teaching him his trade. Hugo and his father were trying to fix an automaton his father had found abandoned in a museum when he died in a fire accident. After his father's death, Hugo was adopted by his alcoholic uncle, Claude Cabret (Ray Winstone) who also worked as a clock repairman for the city's rail station. When Claude mysteriously disappeared, Hugo continued to service the rail station's clock while living in the clock tower so that he will not be discovered and sent to the orphanage. Hugo continued to spend his time trying to fix the automaton left behind by his father; he would steal parts and tools from a local toy repair shop owned by a sad looking old man, Papa Georges, played by Ben Kingsley. One day, papa George caught Hugo trying to steal his toys and seized his notebook in retaliation. Hugo recruits Papa George's foster child Isabelle, played by Chloe Grace Moretz, to help him retrieve the notebook. This plot starts a strong friendship between the two kids, and opens up a new secret about Papa George which has been hidden for a long time. The theme of the film is about healing the broken hearted by fixing the broken pieces in one's life and not giving up one's dreams and aspirations. The focus of the film is on a plot to fix the broken automaton left behind by Hugo's father, but in the process of fixing the automaton, broken hearts are mended, and dashed dreams are revived. A good reference to the theme of the movie is a line from Papa George when he said of Hugo, "I am here today because of a young man who found a broken machine and against all odds, he fixed it". Elements of the film that contribute to the theme include the soft color palette; there is an overall cool color tone to reflect the time\period of the movie. The color palette is also a reflection of the unusual depressive mood in the movie. All the major actors had some form of gloom around them, from Hugo, to Papa George (including Mama George), to the station officer etc, were not happy characters, this is in contrast to the final scene, where the colors suddenly lights up with each character being bubbly and individual issues fixed. The classic music tracks played in the film are also a good element to the film. The music, at times fast and other times slow were consistent with the tempo of the movie. The movie soundtracks are definitely well blended into the overall theme of the film. The film, Hugo is an ageless movie whose story talks about courage, dedication, and perseverance of a young man in his search of closure as summed up by Isabelle in her final line of the movie, "this singular young man searched so hard to find a secret message from his father and how that message lit his way all the way home".