Hugo Cabret's father teaches him how to fix the automaton.
The first thing I think is important to tell you about the movie Hugo is that it has been misleadingly marketed. The movie trailers give you the impression this is going to be a 30′s era steam punkish sort of movie complete with mechanical automatons. The trailer sets you up to expect that robots are gong to play a central part of the movie. They don’t. I’d say that the automaton you see in the trailer plays a pivotal role in the movie. But anyone who enters the theater expecting a whimsical clockwork movie is going to be disappointed.
At first.
The movie is actually a fairly standard-issue orphan story. But it is story that’s beautifully told and it has many facets that explore the same basic theme. The movie’s protagonist, orphan Hugo, eeks out a living, taking care of clocks in a train station and hoping the authorities don’t discover that his drunk uncle has died because if they do, he’ll get sent to the orphanage. Because his deceased father was a mechanical genius with clocks and automata, Hugo is naturally interested in them too. And this colors his view of the world. About midway through the movie he tells his one and only friend, Isabelle:
“I’d imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn’t be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason.”
Thus perfectly tying the theme of the movie to the setting.
The theme is played out on several fronts, primarily Hugo’s search to find his place in the world. But the theme is explored through the other lonely people Hugo sees in the train station and a mysterious, crotchety man who runs a toy store in the station.
This story line by itself would have made an excellent movie. Especially one that is so amazingly rendered in film. Every scene in the movie is gorgeous.
For better or worse the movie takes a turn as Hugo’s future gets tied up in finding out how is father died and his father’s relationship to the automaton in the trailer. Telling you any more would spoil it. You might say the sub plot overshadows the main plot of the movie. Or maybe it enlightens the main plot. Kinda hard to say. Up to you to decide.
I’m not a judge of acting. But I’d say the cast was fantastic. Asa Butterfield and Chloë Grace Moretz do the bulk of the heavy lifting in the movie, playing Hugo and Isabelle. They have to convince us they are kids still unsure of how the world works while pulling off some dramatic, emotional scenes with strength. But top acting kudos have to go to Ben Kingsley, playing the crotchety old toy store keeper. The minor characters that Hugo watches in the station are well-portrayed by their actors, coming across, quirky, flawed, funny, but very very human too.
Watch for the cameos. I’ll say no more.
Definitely not what I was expecting, but I also thoroughly enjoyed it.
Nicely written review!