by Audrey Hendricks (Photos courtesy of GK Films)
Dec 17, 2011

Sometimes I sit and think what my life would be like without my parents.  I get sick to my stomach because I don’t want to imagine my life without them.  When you are young, your parents are super heroes.  They are indestructible, they are healers, and they know everything.  I don’t ever want to know what it’s like to lose a parent.  It seems way too hard.  I don’t know how people do it.

Hugo (Asa Butterfield) is a little pre-teen boy who lost his watch-making father in a museum fire in the early 1900’s and now he lives alone in walls of the Paris train station.  Before his father passed, he brought home an abandoned, broken, and rusted automaton.  This machine is now all Hugo has left of his dad and is determined to make it work.  In the mean time, Hugo makes sure all the clocks in the station are wound and working properly.  To keep himself fed and entertained, Hugo steals from the shops at the station. Everything changes one day when he gets caught.

George Melies (Ben Kingsley) is the owner of the toy shop at the station.   As he catches Hugo in the act, he demands Hugo empty his pockets to see what else he has stolen.  The last item Hugo unveils is a notebook that contains drawings of the automaton.  George becomes very upset and threatens to burn the book.  This would crush Hugo if this act is followed through.  He must stop George.  As Hugo is trying to get his book back, he meets Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), who also lives with George and his wife.  Hugo asks Isabelle to help him get his book back and in the process he discovers that Isabelle has the key to make the machine work.

Change scene.  Hugo and Isabelle are in his “secret lair” and they are waiting to see what the mysterious machine will produce.  Hugo believes it is a message from his late father, but when the machine finishes, it’s much more than a message from his father.

As one mystery is solved, another mystery forms.

Darn it, Martin Scorsese has done it again.  He’s made another fantastic movie.  He combined actual history with a little fantasy and turned it into a very heartfelt, adventurous flick.

Two things:

Number 1:  Hugo made me want to cry.  At such a young age he’s lost his parents and the wonderful life they lived and now lives amongst the walls of a train station.  All he wants is to find his purpose in life and hold on to every little thing he can of his father.  I can relate to him because I try to hold on to anything and everything from my close loved ones who have passed too.   At the end of the movie, I really wanted to give the little guy a huge hug.

And Number 2:  Did you know that Georges Melies is a real person?  He started out in life as a very well known magician and then decided to turn all this attention to the silver screen.  During his film career, George Melies wrote and starred in over 500 movies, including Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon). I’ve seen his work numerous times, but never really paid attention.

Hugo 3D is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time.  The fact/fiction storyline, the camera work, the acting is phenomenal.  I went into this movie reluctantly and came out wanting to know more.

There is one downfall though.  This is not a movie to take your little ones to.  This is not Harry Potter. There’s no fighting between good and evil, wizardry, or explosions.  They might get bored, like the child in the movie theater with me.

Hugo is more for the child at heart… Like me.