One in the eye for Scorsese

Rating: 7/10 (24 March 2013)

My, how movies have progressed since Georges Melies time. In his age he composed and filmed good hearted nonsense in days, while Martin Scorsese takes an age with a long film to pay homage to the great man and his works with his own film nonsense. It's tremendously stylish and even lavish but mainly cgi cartoonery and with 3D made redundant on an ordinary TV set, coupled with a tortuously inane plot. Great for kids over 10 though!
Young boy living in gargantuan cartoon railway terminal winding the clocks is fixated on fixing an automaton which he is apparently convinced could send him a message from his dead father. When it comes it sends the film and us in a new (old) direction and makes one wonder if his father was having a laugh. It's very well done although with a few puzzling visuals and very well acted although with a few emotional non-sequiturs, an impressive mix borrowing from Wallace & Gromit, Modern Times, and even Dead Of Night where the automaton's name was Hugo. This is a film for youngsters who might appreciate the history but mainly for adults who think they know the history. Does it work? Well, I enjoyed it as a one off, a harmless expense of two hours time but probably never to be repeated. It helps to have an appreciation not only of the history but of his works too – sadly something along with the reading of Noddy books I was never able to accomplish or miss. For me, the clock had always ticked too long.
A two minute Melies or a two hour Scorsese? That is the question.