Beautiful but flawed

Rating: 7/10 (23 February 2012)

This is a lovely film, no doubt about it. It's a heart warming with some of the most well thought out cinematography I've seen in a long time. If you see this film for no other reason see it for classic shot after classic shot whether it's 3D or not.
Never the less it's not perfect and the two reasons are:- the dialogue which is incredibly inconsistent and the acting which similarly sways between brilliant and average. Some of the speeches which in the film change the outlooks and attitudes of major characters, I just didn't feel would do so. When that happens you're left with that "Oh Come on!"or"as if!" feeling a little two often. As I've said a lot of that is down to the dialogue which isn't strong enough on occasion to elicit the resulting attitudes and actions from it's recipients no matter how well delivered and some is down to the acting which is a bit laboured now and again particularly from Hugo himself. I wonder if Martin expected a little too much from his younger talent and should have given stronger or more prescriptive direction on occasion.
I'd be surprised if most young teenagers would pick up on this and I doubt it will spoil the story or cinema experience at all for those between 9 and 14. For younger children I think it will prove a bit slow. For older ones a bit "nice" but that's more a fault with exploitative video from the music and games industries than a serious fault with the film.
In every other respect. Set design, special effects, music, minor character portrayal, costume " apart from (like war Horse) the main characters hair-cut which is not very 1930.(My dad was 10 in 1930 I've seen the pictures), It's a tour de force.
As a fifty year old film fan taking my daughter to the cinema She was bored in places but overall very much enjoyed the film. I thought it was nice; not credible in places and as a result very slightly disappointing.