10 Reasons Why I Love "Hugo"

The other day I mentioned in a post that I thought the new Martin Scorcese-directed film Hugo was a masterpiece of film making. After seeing it a 2nd time I can confirm without exaggeration that Hugo is one of the most enjoyable films I have ever seen.  Hugo tells the story of an orphan who lives in the walls of a Paris train station circa 1930, and the relationship he forms with an old man in the train station, who turns out to be pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès (Ben Kingsley). This film tells the story of Méliès in a creative, imaginative way and will remind you of why you love the movies.

Top 10 reasons why I love Hugo

10. Made me want to pay to see it again. Rarely do I want to see a first-run movie again in a theater. In the past 10 years I've seen three movies in the theater more than once (not counting classics from pre-1960): Indiana Jones 4 (two times; I'm a sucker for Indy adventures), Toy Story 3 (two times), and True Grit (three times). I liked Hugo better than any of them, and will probably see it a third time. 

9. The setting in the Paris train station. I just loved every minute inside those walls. The set designers should get an Oscar nomination. An then there's the automaton but the less I tell you about him the better.

8. The scenes in the bookstore, library and movie theater. I loved these parts. It's so refreshing to see Hugo and Isabelle inspired by books and old films, especially silent films! And going to the library to do research.... On the subject of films!!!

7. The beautiful musical score by Howard Shore. (I've included a snippet at the end of this post)

6. Though actual footage of real movies are shown in the film (including clips of Méliès's own films) , there are other moments in the movie that reminded me of other films; subtle nods, perhaps. I can't tell you them all without giving away too much, but there were some parts that reminded me of Vertigo, and even Scorcese's Shutter Island.  A writer for the Huffington Post expressed my thoughts when she wrote: "you've got...the exquisite little human dramas in the train station a la Rear Window,  and Hugo looking occasionally like Truffaut's Antoine Doinel of the 400 Blows to name a few."

5. The 3-D effects. I have only seen a handful of films in 3-D:  Bolt (a forgettable kiddie film), Clash of the Titans, Coraline, and Robert Zemekis' A Christmas Carol. IMO,  Hugo is a better movie than all of these combined. The 3D works very well in this film; I felt like I was actually in the train station among the crowd. 

4. It has some comedic moments without going over the top. The humor mostly comes from the station inspector played by Sacha Baron Cohen  ("Borat" "Bruno")  who has created another memorable cinematic character. And his doberman Maximillian provides some very funny moments. And the humor from the inspector isn't all slapstick buffoonery; instead of being completely on the dark side, he is shown to have some depth of character and has some moments of humanity.

3. The cast. Brilliant cast. Ben Kingley is perfect in this role, and so are the actors who play Hugo and Isabelle. I don't know their names but they are simply wonderful. There are a few small roles in the station such as the flower girl played by Emily Mortimer, and the bookstore owner played by Christopher Lee.Jude Law plays Hugo's father and he's terrific. They are small roles, but give the film a richness and atmospheric quality. 

2. Made me want to seek out more about the origin of this story, the book by Brian Selznick. There's a website about the book, but I haven't had time to go through it all yet. Yesterday at Thanksgiving I saw my cousin who's a grade school teacher; she said she knew all about the book and was interested in seeing how it is adapted on film. Me on the other hand, didn't know much about the story at all (perhaps that's another reason why I love this film). But I did find an old interview Selznick did for NPR : you can listen to it here.

1. This is a movie-lover's movie; it touches on the history of cinema and film preservation. (How often do we see that in a modern day film?) . And this is an artist's movie, and there are so many themes an artist can relate to such as finding inspiration and purpose in your talent and gifts.