Movie Review: Hugo

There are so many things I love about this movie.

Hugo takes place in Paris in the 1930’s and follows the story of an orphan, Hugo Cabret, who lives in a train station after the tragic death of his father (played by Jude Law). Hugo kept an old style robot and tries to uncover the mystery of its true purpose by gathering parts in the train station. In the process, his story touches the lives of those around him.

There aren’t a lot of big name actors, but you’ll recognize a fair share of them from various other movies. The characters you get to see are very quirky and appropriate for this genre. 

Moreover, this film is a beautiful work of art in 3D. The art director for this film has pretty much set the standard for how storytelling in 3D is supposed to look. The film production rivals that of its predecessors, (think of Disney and the strides it made in animation).

The movie feels like there’s so much thrown at you at once, but in a good way. There is some romance, some drama, some tragedy, and even bits of comedy. It’s just the right balance of everything.

With that said, it is a kids movie so the story line is very much predictable in the sense that there are a lot of coincidental moments. I found that it didn’t bother me too much because of how I focused on the other elements of the movie.

To sum it all up, it’s a great feel-good movie. It was definitely what I needed when I saw it.  

5 Out of 5 Thumbs Up—I can’t come up with just one grand reason for anyone to see it. Just go see it for yourself. You’ll find a reason to like it almost as much as I do.