Spoiler Alert!
Earlier this month, I finally watched a movie that came out ten years ago: Hugo. Until a few weeks ago, I always knew it as “that movie about a boy in a train station.” Now that I’ve seen it, it’s clear that it’s so much more than that.
Hugo is based on a book called “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick. The movie is directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Asa Butterfield as Hugo and Chloe Grace Moretz as Isabelle. It also has Frances de la Tour, Helen McCrory, Richard Griffiths, and Jude Law, all Harry Potter actors. The story is set in 1931 and follows Hugo Cabret, who has lived in a train station with his Uncle Claude since his father died in a museum fire. In his spare time, Hugo tries to fix the automaton that his father found in the museum. Hugo is desperately alone and he hopes that the automaton will be like a friend, or at the very least, give him some sort of message from his dad.
Hugo soon meets Isabelle and the two of them work out the secret of the automaton, which leads them to a man named Georges Melies, who was a real person. Melies is known for being a pioneer in cinema, being one of the first directors to add special effects to his movies. Melies tries to ignore Hugo and Isabelle, but they show him one of his old movies, “A Trip to the Moon.” He was depressed after shutting down his movie studio, because of World War I.
Inspired, Georges thanks Hugo for everything he’s done. He just wishes he had his automaton back. Smiling, Hugo rushes off back to the train station to retrieve the automaton for Georges. The movie ends with all the characters going to the theater, where they are hosting a Georges Melies celebration. Georges steps up on stage and publicly thanks Hugo. Isabelle then starts writing a book, all about Hugo.
That’s the abridged story of the movie Hugo. I didn’t know what to expect when I watched it, but I liked it. Asa Butterfield and Chloe Grace Moretz were perfect as Hugo and Isabelle. They were innocent, but determined to help Georges. By the end, Hugo got his family and Isabelle got her adventure.
I liked a lot of the subplots. Richard Griffiths played Monsieur Frick, who ran the newspaper stand. Frick was in love with Madame Emilie, played by Frances de la Tour, who ran a cafe. Emilie had this dog who kept barking at Frick, keeping them apart. At the end, Frick came along with his own dog and the two pooches bonded very well. The two humans and the two dogs make lovely couples. The station inspector was played by Sacha Baron Cohen. He provided a lot of the humor in the movie, but the inspector was also sad. He was injured during World War I and doesn’t let people in easily. He’s in love with the flower shop owner, Lisette, played by Emily Mortimer. Lisette and the inspector bond over the war. Lisette lost her brother to it. Georges Meilies, played by Ben Kingsley, starts off gruff, but as Hugo and Isabelle help him throughout the movie, he becomes nicer and we see what he was like back when he started his movies.
If I had to find something wrong with the movie, I would have to say the design of the automaton. It might just be me, but I was creeped out by its appearance. It looked like it was just staring at Hugo most of the time and I really wanted it to look away.
Overall, I liked the movie. When it first came out, I was right to think that it was about a boy in a train station, but it’s also about the history of movies and how a young boy found his family.