Martin Scorcese turns back time in the visually stunning Hugo

Hugo, Martin Scorcese’s first film shot in 3-D, is a remarkable viewing experience that utilizes 3-D technology to its fullest. For example, when the intricate inner workings of a giant clock are shown, the dimensionality adds another layer to already stunning imagery. But as much as the film succeeds visually, it’s not a terrific movie because of its high-tech wizardry, but because of its stellar performances and intriguing story.

Based on Brian Selznick’s children’s book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the film is set in Paris in the 1930s. The story centers on 12-year-old Hugo (Asa Butterfield), a smart boy with a mechanical aptitude whose life takes a turn for the worse when his single parent father (Jude Law) dies in a fire. His alcoholic uncle takes Hugo in and teaches him maintain the clocks in the town’s railway station. Hugo lives in the clock tower and survives by stealing food and eluding Inspector Gustav (Sacha Baron Cohen), a police officer who seems to relish sending children off to orphanages.

When Hugo meets Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), a young girl who admires his ambitions, he discovers a true soul mate and they quickly become friends, even though her godfather (Ben Kingsley) disapproves. Hugo, who has been working on fixing an automaton that his father left in progress, he’s stunned to discover that Isabelle possesses the final piece. When he gets the automaton to work, it draws a picture of a scene from a film the children eventually find out was made by Isabelle’s godfather, Georges Méliès, a legendary filmmaker who abandoned his craft years ago. Together, they work to ensure that his films, thought to be lost, are recovered and shown to a new, appreciative audience.

While the film’s pace is undoubtedly too slow for many young viewers and its themes are too juvenile for some adult viewers, it’s still a terrific movie with real heart. Butterfield is terrific as the earnest Hugo and Baron Cohen shows yet another side to his multi-faceted personality as the stern-but-strange Inspector Gustav. Kingsley brings the proper amount of gravitas to the role of Georges Méliès, too.

While Hugo’s lukewarm opening box office tally suggests it’s likely to get lost in a slew of holiday releases, it’s worth seeing, especially since it resonates so soundly on the big screen.