Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.

Directed: Martin Scorsese

Stars: Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz and Christopher Lee

What we think: I’m going to be honest here, and I may well get slated for saying it, but I wasn’t a fan of Hugo.

Visually its amazing, don’t get me wrong about that, but overall I was bored, and it took for too long for things to get moving.

Hugo Cabret himself (Butterfield) had the look of an annoying child actor, and he did annoy me, greatly. His talent was, well, for the most part non existent and at times rather dull.

Now, I should be lashed for slating a film by Scorsese who is one of my favourite directors but his first attempt at a film for children has left him way short of his best.

Hugo lives in a railway station situated in 1930s Paris and spends his time looking after the stations clocks, of which his father (Jude Law) used to do. He uses the back passages to move about and lives by stealing croissants and avoiding the capture of the bungling station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen).

He comes to aquire a strange mannequin, which his father inherited from a museum and Hugo attempts to repair it with the help of Isabelle (Moretz).

The pair are then sucked into the magical world of film, after investigating the past of Isabelle’s godfather George Méliès (Kingsley) himself a popular French filmmaker, who now sells toys at the station.

Hugo is a well oiled machine, with serious attention to detail in the setting and cinematography. The injection of some film classics such as Harold Lloyd hanging off a clock and A Trip to the Moon will send people back to a time when film was simple.

Here though, for a children’s film Scorsese makes things complex, and whether it will hold a child’s imagination let alone attention is anyone’s guess.

View the trailer

Rating: (2.5/5)

Visit the IMDb page for Hugo

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