Martin Scorsese is one of the most well respected American filmmakers of his generation. His work has enthralled and inspired legions of film fans and filmmakers alike for over thirty years. In this long and decorated career however, Scorsese has never before filmed a 3D movie. So, in a way Hugo is something a landmark moment for his career. The main question is; could a filmmaker of Scorsese’s phenomenal talent utilise the technology in a way that breaks new cinematic ground or will he find himself falling into the same old visual and thematic traps as so many of those who have ventured into the third dimension before him.
The answer to this question, I am delighted to say, in an emphatic no; Scorsese manages to craft a film which is a truly immersive 3D experience, the technology compliments the narrative to the movie perfectly (particularly when you consider that one of the major aspects of the plot concerns a man who was one of cinema’s great technological innovators). Scorsese uses the 3D technology to bring the cogs and workings of Hugo’s beloved Automaton to live. He also makes great use of the film’s 3D to really heighten the actor’s emotions. Every subtle facial change is painstakingly captured by Scorsese’s meticulous interpretation of 3D cinema.
Although the film’s 3D is a major talking point, Hugo has far more than that to offer the viewer. The film is at once both a hart rendering tale of a lost child and a broken old man finding a new hope for life and an accurate analysis of the genesis of what many cinephiles identify as the birth of cinema as we know it. As well as its deeply emotive and fascinating narrative, Hugo also boasts some terrific individual performances, most notably from the superb Ben Kingsley as Papa Georges, a toy shop owner with a secret past; and also from young Asa Butterfield as Hugo Cabaret, the young boy who’s story the film tells. The supporting cast also play a crucial role as various outlandish and unusual characters which frequent the train station which has become Hugo’s home. Richard Griffiths, Frances De La Tour, Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee and Sacha Baron Cohen deserve particular mention.
There can be little doubt that Hugo is comfortably one of the best 3D films to be released since the formats rebirth began in 2008 but that is not to say that it is perfect. Although never boring, the film does feel a little bit on the baggy side coming in at a running time of two hours eight minutes and some characters are not really developed enough; the talents of Jude Law and Ray Winstone are particularly underused as Hugo’s doting father and drunken uncle respectively. Hugo is already being talked about as the first 3D film to win the Best Picture Oscar, perhaps that is a little wide of the mark but if Scorsese is as good as his word and continues to work in 3D, there is little to suggest that he cannot develop his auteuristic style within the technology enough to collect that accolade in the future.
