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.
Hugo, the latest film from cinematic maestro Martin Scorsese, is both his first film geared for families and his first film shot in 3D. While many noteworthy directors have been weary of the new format, some greats have embraced it and been eager to try it. James Cameron, not the inventor of 3D but certainly a recent innovator, upon seeing Hugo, called it the best use of 3D he'd seen. No matter what your thoughts on 3D may be, this is no small feat coming from this man.
The film, based on the novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick and with a screenplay by John Logan, who also penned Scorsese's The Aviator, Hugo is largely billed as a family film but it's worth noting that the film's biggest fans will probably be adults, although there's enough whimsical fantasy to tug at the heartstrings of even the most jaded child.
Listening The HERO song
Hugo largely takes place in the early 1930s at a Paris railway station. Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) is a young boy whose father (Jude Law), a clockmaker, dies suddenly in a fire. His alcoholic Uncle Claude (Ray Winstone) is responsible for maintaining the clocks at the railway station and teaches Hugo how to do so before taking an indefinite leave of absence. Hugo, left all alone, lives within the walls of the train station, maintaining the clocks, acquiring food by stealing, and spending his free time trying to fix the automaton his father left behind.
The automaton is a mechanical man that, once wound up, is supposed to write; his father found it difficult to fix and it's Hugo's mission to see that it finally works. To successfully accomplish this goal, Hugo steals mechanical parts from a toyshop owner named Papa Georges (Ben Kingsley), a callused, angry old man who eventually catches Hugo and steals his blueprints that guide him in fixing the automaton.
