When I was seeing Tintin with my mom and little brother, my dad and sister went to see Hugo. While I loved Tintin, eventually I decided to see Hugo myself because of the rave reviews. To put it simply, Hugo amazed me. Apparently, it also amazed the Academy, being nominated for Best Picture, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design, Directing, Film Editing, Original Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects, and Adapted Screenplay. That makes 11 nominations, the most since Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2004). What made LOTR so special is that it swept all 11 categories, and while I’m not really rooting for Hugo to also sweep because it’s competing in some categories against films I saw and liked this year (Harry Potter, Tintin, and Moneyball), I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it does. Hugo is a nearly perfect film.
The two things that stand out most about Hugo are the beautifully simple and captivating story and the intricate, out of sequence way in which it’s told. Throughout the film, the audience follows the tale of orphan boy Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), who lives and works in a Paris Train Station after WWI. All he wants to do is fix an automaton, the last relic of his late father. This leads to him “fixing” much more: The life and dreams of a retired filmmaker he didn’t even know. It’s a simple and beautiful tale. What makes it unique is that all the details of the story--How Hugo became an orphan, why he lives in the station, what led him to the filmmaker—aren’t made clear until the end of the film. In two incredibly well written, well acted, and beautifully directed scenes at the end of the movie, the plot comes together and all the character’s actions begin to make sense. Until then, we get snippets of plot, like the scenes detailing Hugo’s back-story, and him meeting and befriending Isabelle ( Chloë Grace Moretz) , the filmmaker’ s niece , trying to uncover the mystery of the automaton, but we don’t know what it means yet. By the time it all comes together at the end, everyone is smiling—the characters and the audience. Hugo deserves all 11 of its nominations, and it definitely deserves a look.
By Colin V.
