"hugo"
i need to hurry up and review this movie while i still remember something about it--i saw it almost a week ago. a friend and i saw clips of it during the oscar telecast and were similarly moved to try to get to see it in a theater. so last friday we planned and executed an outing.
first of all, it is gorgeous. amazing attention to detail, spectactular visuals. i am so so glad to have seen it in the theater. on the other hand, the plot is a little thin. i wasn't astonished by this because the plot of the book on which it was based was a little thin, but still. on the other other hand, scorcese has fleshed it out a bit by inserting historical footage from various old movies, but i don't want to say too much about that for fear of spoilers.
hugo is an orphan who lives in a huge train station. his uncle used to be in charge of keeping the clocks wound up but his uncle has disappeared so hugo is keeping up with the job, in the hopes that no one will notice that his uncle is missing and send him to the orphanage. he has a hostile encounter with a shop owner at the station and loses something that is precious to him and sets out to get it back.
the shop owner is ben kingsley and what's not to like? the kids are adorable though perhaps we see too many closeups of their adorableness--but i did love the character of the girl who befriends hugo who has a very precocious vocabulary and she's not afraid to use it. the villain of the piece, the station master, is played by sasha baron cohen--i think at least two scenes were improvised in part by him.
the film is a little self-congratulatory about how wonderful movies are but it held my attention and it thrilled my eyes. i do know people (respected film critics, even!) who didn't like it and i know people who liked it much more than i did, so i can't speak to who amongst you might enjoy it, but i knew right away that my dad would love it, so i recommended it to him.
first of all, it is gorgeous. amazing attention to detail, spectactular visuals. i am so so glad to have seen it in the theater. on the other hand, the plot is a little thin. i wasn't astonished by this because the plot of the book on which it was based was a little thin, but still. on the other other hand, scorcese has fleshed it out a bit by inserting historical footage from various old movies, but i don't want to say too much about that for fear of spoilers.
hugo is an orphan who lives in a huge train station. his uncle used to be in charge of keeping the clocks wound up but his uncle has disappeared so hugo is keeping up with the job, in the hopes that no one will notice that his uncle is missing and send him to the orphanage. he has a hostile encounter with a shop owner at the station and loses something that is precious to him and sets out to get it back.
the shop owner is ben kingsley and what's not to like? the kids are adorable though perhaps we see too many closeups of their adorableness--but i did love the character of the girl who befriends hugo who has a very precocious vocabulary and she's not afraid to use it. the villain of the piece, the station master, is played by sasha baron cohen--i think at least two scenes were improvised in part by him.
the film is a little self-congratulatory about how wonderful movies are but it held my attention and it thrilled my eyes. i do know people (respected film critics, even!) who didn't like it and i know people who liked it much more than i did, so i can't speak to who amongst you might enjoy it, but i knew right away that my dad would love it, so i recommended it to him.