Movie review: Hugo

Perhaps seeing this film in 3-D would be better but I can't imagine how.  This is a lovely movie, much better and more layered than I anticipated.  Funny, poignant, beautiful and simply joyful at times, it is definitely worth seeing, no matter what your age.

A young boy lives in the attic of the Montparnasse train station as the keeper of the clocks, a trade taught to him by his father.  He is a whiz at fixing things with gears and is intent on making an old "automaton" come to life with delicately honed wind-up mechanism.  In order to get the gears he needs, he steals little things from a shop that sells toys, and eventually he gets caught by the owner.  The owner turns out to be someone other than a mere shop keeper, however, and on this the story turns.

With Martin Scorsese as director, you know you are going to get grand scenes and larger-than-life sets.  And  you do.  But there is a homage to films inside of this film that will make you smile.  The viewer learns a little about the early days of film making, the simplicity of turning the crank to make the film slide through the gears and project onto the wall.  The music is a little manipulative but the entire movie is as well, intent on making us feel good in a small, nostalgic way.

There are some gratuitously mean characters, a chase scene involving a comical Doberman pinscher dog, a bumbling station police agent, Paris in the snow.  Wonderful visuals, even if computer generated.

I totally enjoyed this movie and am not disappointed it wasn't in 3-D.  It made me remember "Cinema Paradiso," also about the love of cinema and that is now on my "soon to be watched" list.  Two thumbs up for "Hugo."  Check it out.

.