Hugo is a story about an orphan living secretly in the hidden places of a Paris train station in the 1930s following his father’s death. I won’t try to top all the fine reviews of this film, but will just throw a few extra points into the mix:
- From the trailers, you would expect a feel-good kid’s movie. The actual film is way better than that.
- You know how a film can come right up the edge of being goody-two-shoes, too good to be real, and then back away? This film does that instead of falling over the edge.
- Who knew Sacha Baron Cohen was such a good actor? He does a great job as the Station Inspector, stirring unexpected sympathy for a character who’s otherwise just another officious cop-type.
- A lot of films today are about breaking things, and I enjoy a good explosion as much as the next movie fan. But this is a film about fixing things (figuratively and literally), I loved its theme of restoration.