Hugo, a historical drama about a boy who lives in a train station.

Rating: 7/10 (1 October 2014)

This film was a true tribute to the silent film era. I loved that the main character Hugo who is a nobody, played such a big part in running the the Paris train station, and that the movie was shown from the point of view of a child. In my opinion thats what makes a perfect children's film, which was adapted from the children's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret. There was great contrast between light and dark scenes. In the lighter scenes there was high exposure which gave it a happier vibe, compare to the darker scene with lower exposure which gave it more of a grim atmosphere. In addition there was great CGI of Paris and the 3D gave the movie some extra depth and made it more realistic. One scene where Isabelle falls in the train station had lots of quick cuts and a worms eye view, it was true to the time period in the film industry. The film makers began to start to play with different camera angles in that era. The angles of the cameras shot the machinery with all the gears, and levers made it look magical. The set design was also magnificent with the intricacies, scope, and industrial look. There were two little thing that bugged me during the film. The first was the constant fog, it seems like they had a fog machine and wanted to use it as much as they could. Secondly it seemed like all the actors had British instead of french accents, it made it feel like I was in London instead of Paris. On the flip side the chemistry between Isabelle and Hugo was sublime and they really played off each other very well. Ben Kingsley also looked perfect for the role of George Méliès, it would be hard to tell the difference if you put Ben and George side by side. My personal favourite part of the film was the dogs, they added a cute touch. Lastly Sacha Baron Cohen who played the station inspector did a great job of presenting slapstick comedy which was relevant during that era. Overall it was a great children's movie that can be thoroughly enjoyed by both children and adults.