If You Can Get Past A Dull And Slow Paced First Hour This Becomes Fairly Interesting

Rating: 4/10 (26 February 2012)

My first reaction when this came to an end was that no matter its quality, it was tailor made for an Oscar nomination. Let's be honest. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is nothing if not a little bit self-serving, and much of the last half of this movie - once Papa Georges (Ben Kingsley) is revealed to be the early French film-maker Georges Melies (who is probably most famous for "A Trip To The Moon," which he made in 1902) - is essentially set aside as a celebration of the early days of movie-making. So, to me, that explains the Oscar nomination for Best Picture, because to be perfectly honest I didn't think this movie was that great. In fact, I'd sum up the first half, which revolves around young Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) as confusing at best, with a direction and purpose that was mystifying - at least to me.
Hugo is an orphan who lives in the clock tower of a Paris train station (unknown to the authorities.) He steals to survive, desperately tries to stay out of the reach of the authorities, who are represented by the Station Inspector (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) and the only thing he has left from his father is an "automaton" - a sort of robot that doesn't work anymore, but that Hugo wants to fix, because he's convinced that it bears a message from his father. Together with Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz) - whose parents have also died and who lives with her godparents (the aforementioned Papa Georges and Mama Jeanne, played by Helen McCrory) - he manages to fix the automaton, which proceeds to draw him a picture from "A Trip To The Moon" - the first movie he ever saw with his father. This finally leads them to the realization that Papa Georges is Georges Melies, and the story becomes an attempt to help Georges overcome his own demons from the past.
Bluntly, I found this confusing and poorly paced. It has very much a fantasy feel about it at times, and I thought for a while (because I didn't know who the director was) that this may have been directed by Tim Burton - it has a very Burton-esque style to it in places (particularly the depiction of the inner workings of the clock.) I was surprised at the closing credits to discover that the movie was actually directed by Martin Scorsese, but as I watched the credits, some of that style finally made sense to me. One of the co-producers of the movie is Johnny Depp - who is, of course, a frequent collaborator as an actor with Tim Burton. OK. The pieces began to fit together. Give the movie credit for some effective special effects (in particular Hugo's two dream scenes revolving around the train and as he sees himself as an automaton), and for a heartwarming ending, as Melies is finally honoured for his film-making achievements. It was also nice to see (not enough, unfortunately) some clips from some of his movies. Some of the memories Melies shares also provide a tantalizing glimpse of early film-making techniques.
Yes, there are some good things to be found here. I still found it very difficult to get through the first hour, which was slow-paced and confusing to say the least. It picks up steam after that, and becomes more interesting, but it's still hard to get past that first hour. (4/10)