If you cross a children’s movie with a rom-com you would get Hugo. Vaguely entertaining, largely predictable with moments that can only be described as extremely Disney.
Hugo is an orphan who lives in a Parisian train station winding and maintaining all of its clocks’ in fact he is somewhat of a savant in regards to all things clockwork. There is a girl who befriends and helps Hugo there is a grumpy old man his loving wife and a clumsy police officer played by Sacha Baron Cohen. The police officer is the villain of the story, his only role appears to be to round up orphans for the authorities.
Sounds very formulaic for any story aimed at children with a child as the hero of the story. It is based on the Brian Selznick’s award winning 2007 novel/picture book The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The film is nominated for 10 Oscars in the 2011 Academy Awards. Although I have not seen all of the other films nominated for Best Picture but it would be insulting to them if Hugo aged to its trophy cabinet by taking home this particular statue. It is a 3D film (aren’t they all now), train stations and the inside of clock towers provide a lot of opportunities to exploit this visual technology so Oscars in the categories on cinematography and visual effects may be well deserved.
The different story lines are held together by an automaton which in itself become a mechanical red herring in the film. The actual automaton storyline goes nowhere.
It is difficult to write a review and not give away too much of the story for a film that is so predictable.
It is possible that as a childless male nearing 40 that I am not in the core demographic for which this film was written. In fact in choosing to see this film was more a question of timing – the films my friend and I wanted to see had already started by the time we bought tickets. As a children’s film Hugo bucks the modern trend of having images and dialogue for the adults, Hugo is void of such content.
Hugo will be a great DVD for families to have in their collect for when school holidays start to get long and boring.
Can animals be nominated for best actor/actress in a supporting role? If so can I nominate the two daschunds from Hugo? They definitely steal the show.
Hugo is an orphan who lives in a Parisian train station winding and maintaining all of its clocks’ in fact he is somewhat of a savant in regards to all things clockwork. There is a girl who befriends and helps Hugo there is a grumpy old man his loving wife and a clumsy police officer played by Sacha Baron Cohen. The police officer is the villain of the story, his only role appears to be to round up orphans for the authorities.
Sounds very formulaic for any story aimed at children with a child as the hero of the story. It is based on the Brian Selznick’s award winning 2007 novel/picture book The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The film is nominated for 10 Oscars in the 2011 Academy Awards. Although I have not seen all of the other films nominated for Best Picture but it would be insulting to them if Hugo aged to its trophy cabinet by taking home this particular statue. It is a 3D film (aren’t they all now), train stations and the inside of clock towers provide a lot of opportunities to exploit this visual technology so Oscars in the categories on cinematography and visual effects may be well deserved.
The different story lines are held together by an automaton which in itself become a mechanical red herring in the film. The actual automaton storyline goes nowhere.
It is difficult to write a review and not give away too much of the story for a film that is so predictable.
It is possible that as a childless male nearing 40 that I am not in the core demographic for which this film was written. In fact in choosing to see this film was more a question of timing – the films my friend and I wanted to see had already started by the time we bought tickets. As a children’s film Hugo bucks the modern trend of having images and dialogue for the adults, Hugo is void of such content.
Hugo will be a great DVD for families to have in their collect for when school holidays start to get long and boring.
Can animals be nominated for best actor/actress in a supporting role? If so can I nominate the two daschunds from Hugo? They definitely steal the show.
