Hugo - 7 stars out of 10

Hugo - 7 stars out of 10

I am a bit perplexed by "Hugo."  The trailer creates an impression of a children's adventure film but the movie that I saw contained very little for kids.  I am so happy to see a family-friendly film nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture but "family-friendly" does not mean "made for families."  In fact, the teenager sitting in front of me (who was so bored that she texted through the second half of the movie) leaned over to her mom after about 90 minutes and loudly whispered "This movie sucks."  Putting that annoying girl's impressions aside, I did enjoy many aspects of this film.  I thought that second half of the film, from Georges Méliès' flashback of his famous films until the end, was fantastic.  The way that they brought the filming of  "Le voyage dans la lune" and other early 1900's films to life was magical and nostalgic.  The lives of early filmmakers are often overlooked and it was fascinating as they revealed Papa Georges' past and his fate as a result of World War I.  But why did the first hour of this film have to be so painfully boring?  I understand that the storytellers were looking for an interesting and curious way to tell the story of Méliès, but it really seemed like a stretch for an hour+ of Hugo's story to coincidentally connect to a brief telling of Méliès' story.  I feel that it was filmed well, particularly from that non-cut away opening sequence of Hugo running through the gears and the nightmare of the famous Gare Montparnasse train derailment.  But again, the train crash has nothing to do with the story until they very loosely tied it in at the end.  I really enjoyed the comedic moments of Sacha Baron Cohen like his conversations about the one man's pregnant wife and the problems caused by his leg brace, but they were so sporadic that they seemed out of place.  Add in the fact that this was directed by Martin Scorsese and it seems even more obscure.  The performances of Ben Kingsley, Helen McCrory, and Baron Cohen were all very good while Asa Butterfield didn't match his performance in "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" and Chloë Grace Moretz has been better in "Let Me In" and "Kick-Ass."  When I watch this film in a few years, I know that I will enjoy it more since I know how it ends, but the first time through left me struggling to connect an orphan, and automaton, a bookworm, an old filmmaker, a runaway train, and a comic doberman.