Hugo

Martin Scorsese walks mean streets, so why is he directing a family film in 3D? Glad you asked. Scorseses rapturously beautiful Hugo only appears to be outside his wheelhouse. Film history is part of Scorseses DNA. His passion flows through this tale of Hugo (the extraordinary Asa Butterfield), a 13-year-old orphan who lives behind the clock in a Paris train station in 1931.

Based on the Caldecott-winning childrens novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick (cousin of Hollywood titan David O. Selznick), the film vividly adapted by John Logan emerges as a spectacular adventure for film lovers of all ages. In a twist on Treasure Island, Hugo discovers his prize in the form of a reclusive film pioneer, Georges Mlis (Ben Kingsley, in a superbly nuanced performance), who runs the stations toy booth. Its Hugo, with the help of Isabelle (a lovely, eager Chlo Moretz), who reintroduces Mlis to life and art. How? I wouldnt begin to spoil the fun. I will say that in Scorseses hands, 3D becomes an art. With the help of the gifted cinematographer Robert Richardson and editor supreme Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese sweeps us headlong into the action as Hugo runs rings around the stationmaster (a hilarious Sacha Baron Cohen) and sneaks us into the stations secret corridors and inside the clock, with its jaw-dropping view of Paris.

Best of all, Scorsese re-creates the early days when Mlis, a former magician, crafted hundreds of films, many starring his wife, Jeanne (Helen McCrory), in a glass studio, building wonders out of his own sense of playful design. Scorsese builds Hugo in the Mlis manner, creating a complete, ravishing Parisian world on a soundstage in England and reveling in the sheer transporting joy of it. Hugo will take your breath away. It truly is the stuff that dreams are made of.

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