La critique de James Berardinelli (1)

With Hugo, Martin Scorsese has accomplished what few in Hollywood are willing to try: make a movie for adults that arrives without sex, violence, or profanity and earns a PG-rating. It's a fairy tale for mature viewers, but the airy exterior hides emotional depth. Hugo is appropriate for young viewers, but it's questionable how much they will derive from the experience and, because the pace is more leisurely than frenetic, it's likely the average child's attention will wander. The style is nothing like what we have come to expect from Scorsese. The whimsical approach with its Dickensian overtones and interludes of magical realism recall Terry Gilliam and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. For at least one film, Scorsese has left behind much of his baggage and accomplished what David Lynch did with The Straight Story and David Mamet did with The Winslow Boy - use his considerable behind-the-screen prowess and apply it to a different kind of story. The result is often magical.

Hugo is based on the 2007 illustrated historical fiction, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brain Selznick. It transpires in and about Paris' Monparnasse train station during the early 1930s and focuses on a young orphan, Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), who lives in the back rooms and hidden places "inside the walls." Having learned the craft of repairing timepieces from his father (Jude Law), a clockmaker who died in a recent fire, Hugo spends his days keeping the station's clocks wound and in good repair - when he's not pilfering the odd croissant or piece of fruit. Hugo also has a hobby - attempting to repair an automaton his father was working on at the time of his death. To accomplish this, Hugo must steal gears and other material from a shopkeeper who turns out to be the legendary director Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley) fallen on hard times. In Melies' goddaughter, Isabelle (Chloe Moretz), Hugo finds an ally. But he also has an enemy - the Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen), who seeks to catch Hugo and send him to an orphanage.