For the love of film, 'Hugo' looms large
Every frame in Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" is an astonishing, three-dimensional work of art.
Every frame.
Not a single filmmaker on this movie had worked on a 3-D production before.
So instead of shooting a 2-D movie and processing it into 3-D (as "Immortals" and other cost-conscious productions have done), Scorsese's team started from scratch to test what worked best for 3-D and what didn't.
The result? A virtual reinvention of the process that "Avatar" already proved could be a mega-money-making device when used properly.
Now, "Hugo" proves 3-D's mettle as a genuine art form in how we experience cinema. It saturates the screen with details that supply it with a sweeping, almost intoxicating sense of depth.
Slanted girders, piles of strategically placed books, long hallways, monstrous gears intermeshing like images purloined from an early German Expressionist movie.
They create an immersive 3-D experience like none other I've ever witnessed.
Oh, yeah, "Hugo" has a good story, too.
Scorsese has refashioned Brian Selznick's book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" into a love letter to the magic of the movies - the same magic that inspired him to become a filmmaker instead of a priest.
Ostensibly, it's about a young orphan named Hugo (Asa Butterfield) who has taken over the job of maintaining the clocks at a Paris train station during the 1930s.
Hugo comes upon a grand mystery. He rescues an automaton - a mechanical figure - from the trash and begins to think it might hold a message from his dead father.
But when Hugo activates the automaton, it stirs to life and crudely sketches a scene from a 1902 silent movie "A Trip to the Moon."
What does it mean? Hugo quickly teams up with a fellow orphan, the lovely Isabella (Chloe Grace Moretz) to share the adventure.
"We could get into trouble!" Isabella says.
"That's how you know it's an adventure!" Hugo replies.
Sacha Baron Cohen plays the quasi-villain of the story, the Station Inspector out to nab all the orphans he can, despite a permanent leg injury received in World War I.
Emily Mortimer brings a shy appeal to the station's resident floral merchant, Lisette, the apple of the Station Inspector's lonely, curious eye. Ben Kingsley's gruff and elderly shopkeeper sells toys at the train station, but he just might be something else, too.
"Hugo" is not a movie for ADD sensibilities; it's a film for people who want to be transported someplace they've not visited before.
So, if you love the movies, you'll love<I> this </I>movie.
Because it loves the movies just as much as you do.
"Hugo"
&$9733; &$9733; &$9733; &$9733;
Starring: Ben Kingsley, Asa Butterfield, Sacha Baron Cohen, Chloe Grace Moritz, Emily Mortimer
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Other: A Paramount Pictures release. Rated PG. 126 minutes