Martin Scorsese is one of the greatest filmmakers of our time. His films are gripping and mesmerizing, and are the true work of a master visionary. So when I heard he was embarking on a 3-D family film, I was genuinely excited and intrigued. What would someone like him do with 3-D technology? What would a Scrosese “kids” movie look like? Sadly, the end result is a long, drawn out bore that nearly put me to sleep and irked me beyond belief.
Based on Brian Selznick’s book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Hugo tells the story of a young boy (Asa Butterfield) who lives in the walls of a very active train station in 1930s Paris. Before his father (Jude Law) passed away, he taught Hugo a lot about fixing watches and clocks, and now he takes it upon himself to keep all the clocks in the station working. That is until he’s caught stealing parts from a miserable shop owner in the station (Ben Kingsley).
This is where the movie shifts gears and becomes a pseudo biopic of early sci-fi film pioneer Georges Méliès, who Kingsley is actually playing. The path it takes to get to the film history part is sloppy and, as mentioned, very boring to watch. It goes from Hugo working in the shop, to him befriending Méliès’ niece, Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz), to the two of them discovering who Méliès really is. When it finally gets to the interesting part I was comatose and my eyelids were heavy.
There are many things wrong with Hugo, from Sacha Baron Cohen’s very annoying slapstick station agent character, to the absolutely pointless use of 3-D (which only hides the wonderful cinematography and set design), but my biggest issue is that I felt duped by it. I went in expecting to see a groundbreaking family film and got “Film History 101”. Any parent not knowing what they’re in for will be surely disappointed when little Jimmy or Sally want to leave after 30 minutes. And there was so much wasted potential with the story that it truly angers me to see Scorsese’s name on this.
Overall, Hugo is a big failure that might wow some critics now, but will probably be forgotten by the public in a few weeks. It’s also the weakest film in Scorsese’s filmography and we can only hope he rebounds from it.
Rating: 
Rated PG
Cast: Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Top image: A scene from Hugo. Courtesy Paramount Pictures.
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