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Can Martin Scorsese inspire a new generation of classic-film buffs, who marvel at the crank of an antique camera, the magic cascade of light through celluloid, and the fanciful, dawn-of-the-medium creations of filmmaker Georges Méliès?
That’s one question that surfaces after walking out of “Hugo,” Scorsese’s first-ever family film and first-ever 3-D project, which brings author Brian Selznick’s “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” to the screen as a quasi-autobiographical labor of love for cinema’s foremost American master. It’s hard to say if Scorsese’s use of the latest technology to convey Selznick’s fundamentally filmic themes will indeed result in an audience of enchanted, curious youths, but for big kids already fond of motion-picture romanticism, there’s plenty of wizardry to be found.
The film’s title character (Asa Butterfield) is an orphaned boy who winds the clocks in a 1930s Paris train station, an occupation once overseen by his late father (Jude Law), a clockmaker and film lover with a passion for mechanical knickknacks. Moving gears and cranks are just about omnipresent in “Hugo,” appearing in the corners of frames as part of the young hero’s behind-the-scenes world, and underscoring the well-oiled perfection of Scorsese’s craftsmanship. Sweeping you into the station setting and adding locales like an ethereal Paris skyline and Méliès’ own home (where Hugo befriends Isabelle, a plucky bookworm played by the meteoric Chloë Grace Moretz), the director most certainly offers 3-D’s most sophisticated entry, unfurling smart visual reverie even when the movie lags around its middle.
More than a children’s adventure, “Hugo” emerges as a kind of offbeat biopic, with its weightiest emotional content reserved for Méliès, a tragic character beautifully played by Ben Kingsley. Devastated by the war-triggered death of his art, Méliès is a dreamer in need of resurrection, and Scorsese uses the salvaging of the real-life legend’s life and work to further transmit his own long-standing commitment to film preservation.
Egocentric? Nah, “Hugo” is far too lovely to be so cynically labeled. Cinema-centric? Indeed, and celebratory, and wondrous.
Hugo
PG
Three-and-a-half reels out of four
Now playing in area theaters
Recommended Rental
The Help
PG-13
>Available Tuesday
Boosted by a handful of fine performances and an insistence on giving its black maids strong voices of their own, this amiable, goes-down-easy adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s literary blockbuster hovers above other ostensibly anti-racist films made for white America, telling a tale that, however comfy, largely dodges condescension. Viola Davis is fantastic as head maid Aibileen, and breakout star Octavia Spencer brings potent laughs as the outspoken Minny. SPR
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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