Hugo (2011) - What an Imaginative Rebirth of the Wonders of Cinema!

Rating: 10/10 (25 February 2012)

After a life-long career of directing bad-ass gangster flicks, and bloody gang films, director Martin Scorsese makes his first ever family film with the use of the newest 3-D technology, and makes one of the most enchanting films in his career, or one of the best motion pictures in cinema history. "Hugo" tells the story of a young boy named Hugo Cabret, portrayed wonderfully by Asa Butterfield, who lives in the clock towers of a Paris train station in the 1930s. He tries to find the ingredient needed to help fix a mechanical design, found by his deceased father, portrayed brilliantly in short cameo flashbacks by Jude Law. He then finds a key that might unlock a message from his father. Hugo then goes on a life-changing quest to find the secrets of his father's device, and learn the secrets of one man's wonderful but horrid past. I absolutely loved this brilliant masterpiece, and Scorsese succeeds once again. I've never been amazed by a movie that contained those nostalgic elements. The directing by Martin Scorsese is pure gold, and he makes sure that the audience is along for the ride. Also, the cast is just pure brilliant, from the tall to the small. Asa Butterfield is the scene-stealing performance in the title role, and he delivers the right acting that the audience can relate to. Chloe Grace Moretz is great playing Hugo's only friend, Emily Mortimer is charming as the flower girl, Christopher Lee is terrific as the librarian, Sacha Baron Cohen is excellent as the inspector obsessed with rounding up orphans, but Ben Kingsley delivered most of the credit for playing a tragic toy shop owner, with a beautiful past that he tends to forget. "Hugo" is a technological wonder that helps bring this magical world come to life, in front of our eyes. The visual effects are top-notch beautiful, the sound is breathtaking, the 3-D puts you right in the middle of the action, and the art direction feels like stepping into a storybook. I will always remember "Hugo" as a wonderful tribute to why movies are being made today. This is a movie that is an homage to the many amazing wonders of going to the movies, and making them. Just like "The Artist", this is a love letter to cinema, and it will live on for many cinema lovers to see. "Hugo", in my review, "technologically brilliant, a nostalgic cinema tribute".