Whatever transcription we decide on, we will not be wrong, and that, believe it or not, is the biggest problem this film has. Fairytale, magical and unseen, these are the words I could use to describe this film. If you want a slightly more precise description, it could be said that it is a Parisian dickensijada written by Neil Gaiman and Charlie Chaplin. I’m sorry, but I can’t go around – this movie has it all.
I won’t waste much on the story, you will have to thicken it yourself, with a film or a novel by Brian Selznik, which served as the basis for Scorsese’s child. Little Hugo Cabre (in this case, I guess, Igo’s transcription is more appropriate, but I don’t like it, so I’ll continue like this, savagely defying the rules) lives in a big clock at the train station in Paris and takes care of its mechanism. His father, himself an expert in all kinds of devices and machinery, died in a fire some time ago, leaving him with a broken quasi-robot and a candle containing drawings of his parts.
Hugo is forced to steal in order to survive, so one such mischief (if the struggle for survival can be called by that name at all) leads him to an acquaintance with Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley), but also his godmother, young Isabel, with whom he will develop a warm friendship. What is the robot that Hugo’s father bought from the museum? Who, in fact, is Mr. Melies, and why does he think the past should stay where it is?
Let’s start with the obvious – it looks beautiful. Hyperrealistic photography and extraordinary effects are the most deserving for building the charm of interwar Paris, but Scorsese’s experienced eye, which did a great job in the new genre, also helped. The shots are beautiful, the colors are strong and nuanced, the computer-generated objects do not spread the icy and sterile feeling that they mostly provoke. It is quite clear why the Academy decided to give this film statuettes in almost all categories related to the visual.
The cast – a dream come true. The casting is done perfectly because each role is interpreted by someone who was created for it. For example, Sacha Baron Cohen, who reminds me incredibly of Lieutenant Crabtree from Alo, Alo, as a station cop, then ninety-year-old Christopher Lee as a benevolent librarian and the standard-loving Emily Mortimer. , a florist who is in the interest of Cohen’s character. Special praise goes to the genius Ben Kingsley, who plays a mysterious seller of mechanical toys. Okay, the kids are still acting a little weird (not bad, just weird), but I believe this accomplishment will be a good recommendation for them later in their careers.
Scorsese drives us through a dream, the foggy vapors of a locomotive, through fiction, to finally emerge into reality and teach us a thing or two, remind us of some forgotten heroes, give children two hours of fun, and bring older viewers back to happier times.
For the younger generations, this is just an adventure, colorful and full of life, while for the older ones, this is a layered film, which we haven’t seen for a long time. There are small omissions, true, but they can in no way harm the complete emotion caused by Hugo.
