Set in 1930’s Paris Hugo is the story of a young boy (Asa Butterfield) who
is orphaned and lives in the walls of a train station keeping the clocks
running. This is Hugo’s world and through a mix of real life and CGI that is
virtually impossible to tell apart Martin Scorsese has brought this world to
life on a grand scale. The train station is a wondrous place and the intricacies
of the clocks are beautiful.
Hugo’s sole link to his late father is an automaton that the two were
repairing. He is an intelligent child with the ability to fix and maintain
mechanics; however is initially only seen as a thief with little prospects. His
world revolves around staying free of the orphanage and bringing to life the
automaton in his safe keeping.
Many of the pieces needed to fix the automaton are stolen from Georges
Méliès (Ben Kingsley) an older man who runs a toy store at the train station. Georges
is a seemingly bitter old man, however we later discover that there is more to
his story than meets the eye. When Georges takes the notebook Hugo needs to
help his endeavours it leads him to making friends with the man’s goddaughter
Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz). Her
world is one of books and imagination; she is up for adventure and sees beyond
the homeless boy in Hugo. Like the train station, the bookshop and library that
make up her world are gorgeously detailed and bring life to the story.
Hugo and Isabelle discuss their parentage, she
helps him rediscover books and he takes her to her first movie, something Papa
Georges does not allow her to do. These two children; both orphaned but from
completely different worlds soon become friends and meet up regularly at the
train station where they have to keep clear of the station inspector (Sacha
Baron Cohen) who spends his
days looking for lone children to send to the orphanage. However, while they
don’t know it yet their worlds are more intrinsically connected then they know.
Eventually Hugo shows Isabelle where he stays when he discovers that the
heart key she wears on a chain around her neck is the missing piece to making
the automaton work. When the automaton draws a scene from the first movie Hugo’s
father remembers seeing and signs the piece ‘Georges Méliès’ it sends the kids
on a further adventure and to the discovery that Papa Georges was actually a well-known
filmmaker in his day, who also created the automaton and is believed to be dead
in the War.
It is here we learn the story of Papa Georges current sadness and the
lives that he and his wife Mama Jeanne (Helen McCrory) lived. Like the
automaton was all those years Papa Georges is broken because he has lost his purpose.
This is such an amazing analogy made by Hugo and an intriguing observation into
the human condition.
We are introduced through a series of flashbacks to a world of early day
movies and filmmaking. An early magic and the creation of dreams brought to
life. There are some wondrous lines of dialogue that help paint a picture of
what films mean to the world and that this has been a universal truth since the
days of the first films.
Hugo and Isabelle’s family are from two different worlds and yet for
years these people’s lives have been connected by a long forgotten automaton.
It is only by chance that their worlds collide and they find in each other the
missing piece of the puzzle in their lives. Hugo finally has a family; Isabelle
has lived the adventure of a life time and for the first time in years Papa
Georges has purpose back in his life.
This is a wondrous and charming story of survival, friendship, dreams
and new beginnings.
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