So, tonight I watched Hugo, a film that has several awards in the recent run of film awards ceremonies, particularly for cinematography and visual effects. And in those respects I have to agree completely that the film deserves them. It's a beautiful film featuring a wonderful blend of top notch visual effects as well as props.
Hugo is a film about a boy called (unsurprisingly) Hugo (Asa Butterfield), who lives in a train station in Paris winding the clocks after his father (Jude Law) passed away, and avoiding the train station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) who hates the poor children who hang around the station, capturing all the ones he can and sending them off to the orphanage. When not winding the clocks up and avoiding the inspector, Hugo tinkers with a small metal automaton left to him by his father, trying to get it to work. One night, he tries to steal more parts for his automaton from the little toy shop in the train station but is caught by the owner (Ben Kingsley), who takes the notebook left to Hugo by his father detailing how the automaton should work. Hugo tries to get the notebook back from the owner, and ends up befriending his goddaughter Isabelle (Chloë Moretz), who happens to have the key (literally) to making the automaton work. Together, the two embark on a journey to learn more about each other and the mystery of the automaton.
Overall, the story is quite good, although I did feel that several plot points were opened up and never truly explained, or that it seemed like there was going to be more to certain story aspects than there was, particularly in relation to Hugo's father, who is very present early on in the film, but then is never really mentioned again - I thought there would be more to his story. Ben Kingsley's story however, was entirely unexpected and very charming and heartfelt.
The film is full of charming characters who populate the train station, and whilst they don't really have any relevance to the main plot and only really serve to momentarily break up the main story, they were charming none-the-less. They were all played by quite well known actors, such as Christopher Lee, Ray Winstone, Richard Griffiths and Frances de la Tour (the last two will probably be most well known to Harry Potter fans, as they played Uncle Vernon and Madame Maxime respectively) amongst others, and it was nice to see them in the film, particularly in such small but charming roles. Their little stories were charming, and did make me wonder about the individual stories about people who work in train stations today.
The acting itself was mostly good as well, although considering the cast is made up predominantly of quite big names it isn't overly surprising. Chloe Moretz was good and enjoyable to watch, as I have thought of several of her recent films. Asa Butterfield however, I felt was quite flat and I didn't feel as emotionally engaged in his character even though I was clearly supposed to, although this is quite possibly due to his youth and lack of acting experience compared to the rest of the cast. I'm not a big Sacha Baron Cohen fan, but his performance here was quite tolerable and enjoyable, I must admit. Ben Kingsley however, was the runaway success and stole every scene he was in for me, and the story of his character was by far more moving than Butterfields.
Overall, I thought the film was enjoyable and heartfelt, although I thought the story was quite drawn out and it wasn't what I was expecting from the trailers, as I was expecting much more of an adventure story with mysteries to be solved by the child duo, and instead I got a film with some mystery, but more focusing on the stories of the adults and the history of cinema itself. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable and a treat to watch, but maybe not one I'll be rushing to watch again.
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