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.
Scorsese has created an exquisite jewel box of a movie, polished and honed to glittering, diamond-hard brilliance.
Hugo isn't perfect...Still, the impulse that led Scorsese to make Hugo is a lovely thing, and beyond reproach.
It may be too rarefied for kids raised on rapping penguins and Chipmunks sequels, but offers excitement and enchantment in equal measure and is likely to become a lasting favourite. Scorsese is film historian enough to recreate early cinema in perfect detail, but Hugo's plot is set in motion by a heart-shaped key. This is a great director's greatest love story.
Hugo also demands a lot from children in the audience: it’s two hours long for a start and requires an engagement with old movies, adult regret, and some banter about Kevin Eldon’s faithless wife. But for adults who cried at The Illusionist: you’re going to need a bigger box of hankies. For film fans, this marvellous enchantment, with its ingenious twist, is Scorsese’s best film in years. GO!
Based on Brian ‘cousin of David O’ Selznick’s award-winning children's novel, Martin Scorsese’s 3D debut is a technical marvel that weds heart to art in its soaring second half. For anyone who loves cinema - who really loves cinema - it can't be missed.
For everyone who loves the movies, here’s a movie that loves them fit to burst.
The human drama is rather mechanically plotted so potentially moving moments don’t feel earned, while efforts at child-friendly liveliness and humour, much courtesy of an off-target Baron Cohen, never really hit the mark. Still, it’s original, ambitious and looks amazing.
It's a deeply felt piece of work, something which only Scorsese could have brought to the screen.
Beautiful but rambling opening section gives way to a history lesson better suited to documentary. The 3D is the one unalloyed treat.
For all its worthy intentions and technical brilliance, Hugo is a hard film to love: not only for children, who may find the largely immobile plot a slog, but also to viewers of any age who’d rather be charmed than merely wowed.
Beautiful though it is, though, it’s not quite enough to make up for the shortfalls elsewhere.
Fluid camerawork and gleaming production design, the Scorsese hallmarks, are small recompense for storytelling as hollow as this.
Hugo won't appeal to anyone, least of all kids.
A family film that should enchant adults.
A sumptuous dud.
Hugo is a moving, funny and exhilarating film, an imaginative history lesson in the form of a detective story.
Hollywood legend Martin Scorsese hires Scottish clockwork expert to work on new movie Hugo
Magical books behind Martin Scorsese's 'Hugo'
Martin Scorsese takes 3D cinema to another dimension
Brian Selznick: how Scorsese's Hugo drew inspiration from his magical books
General release. Check local listings for show times.
RSS feed of Cinema reviews