Hugo

Hugo (2011) [D: Martin Scorcese. Ben Kingsley, Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen.] Hugo Cabret, an orphan living in and servicing the clocks of a Paris train station, is trying to repair an automaton, which his father had rescued from a museum. He strikes up a friendship with Isabelle, granddaughter of Georges Melies, who built the automaton many years before, and now runs a toy booth at the station. Since the tale is a fantasy, everything ends happily: the automaton is repaired, one of Melies’ films is restored, the station master marries the flower girl, and so on. The look of the movie is steampunk overlaid on 1930s Paris. A good deal of CGI is used, and a some of the scenes are gratuitous, notably a train wreck. We saw the 2D version, but it’s obvious that much of the movie was photographed to exaggerate the 3D effect.
     So is it a good movie? Yes, mostly because it’s not only a homage to the beginnings of movies, but because most of the story and all its nuances are conveyed through images and music, not words. I think it was Auden who noted that movies are like opera: The music is half the story. Sure, the conventions of movie music have become cliches, and when poorly applied become intrusive rather than supportive, often no more than a weak attempt to male up for bad photography and lackadaisical editing. But when well done, so that music and image complete each other, you hardly notice the music. That was the case here. The acting is also very good, with a lot of body language and subtle changes in expression, the kind for which the closeup was invented. And as in all properly constructed mysteries, the hero doesn’t know the significance of his knowledge until the puzzles are resolved. Am I blathering a bit? I guess so. I’m a sucker for romantic confections of all kinds, and this confection is tastier than most.
     The book on which the movie’s based also makes use of images: I didn’t read it, but when I saw Connor's on a visit, I noticed that about half of it was pictures. More or less, I didn’t actually count the pages.
     Good movie, recommended. From the comments of people who’ve seen the 3D version, I suggest you steer clear of it. 3D draws too much attention to itself as a medium. ***