It’s
no surprise to me that Hugo was nominated in almost every single category in
the Oscars this year. It’s also no surprise that the only awards it actually
won were unrelated to the story, the acting or general editing of the movie
itself. No, the awards that Hugo won were the ones it deserved – Sound Editing,
Sound Mixing, Cinematography, Visual Effects, and Art Direction. These are
honestly the only reasons that Hugo was at all an enjoyable experience for me.
Other than that, Hugo was a dreadful bore.
Let’s
start out with the story. The critics praised this movie to no end. On Rotten
Tomatoes right now, you can read dozens of critics singing the wonders of
Hugo’s story. I, unfortunately, am not a huge movie history buff, I don’t know
much about the beginnings of film. Therefore, the whole backtrack into the
“glorious beginnings of film” and the famous (albeit not so famous to me) early
director did not have any inherent appeal to me. However, that’s not to say
that I didn’t find it interesting, or that there is no world in which an
incredibly interesting story could be told about that director.
But
here’s the thing… the movie is called “Hugo.” I went into it expecting to be
about the story of this little boy, this apparently exceptional little boy who
runs around a train station keeping the clocks running and working on a
mysterious mechanical man. It turns out that was merely a prologue, a sidetrack
to the real story of the movie – Georges Melies. I was completely sucked in by
the movie’s visuals from the beginning, and this plucky little boy running
around collecting what looked like clockwork pieces really intrigued me. When
the irritable old man running the shop took his notebook, I assumed that was
going to be a major plot point. SPOILER – he never gets it back. His only
reminder of his dead father is never mentioned again as if it’s unimportant.
Even if the plans for the mechanical man are not important, it would be
important as a sentimental keepsake at least!
Besides
that, the movie seems to gloss over the incredibly sad life of the little boy
in order to focus on the golden years and subsequent fall from grace of the old
director. He lives alone in a train station after his loving father dies, and
his alcoholic, abusive uncle disappear. His life is a constant struggle. Merely
finding food is a trial for him, and if he gets caught by the surprisingly
silly old policeman (more on this later), he will get locked in a cage and sent
to an orphanage, set up to seem more like a prison than anything else.
This
sad story however, is not what sticks in my mind by the end of the movie.
Instead, I’m left with the story of Georges Melies, his interest in movies and
then his money troubles. I also remember sighing, fidgeting and looking at the
walls of the movie theater a lot. I remember taking off my 3D glasses to try
and compare the 3D view with the blurry regular view. Then again, I was very
bored.
Beyond
the story, the pacing was just awful. It took forever for anything to happen.
It just seemed like for long periods of time characters would just look at each
other without saying anything. Then they would look into the distance. Then
they would slowly walk around the room. Now, nothing is wrong with this
usually, if it all serves a purpose and is well done. Unfortunately, the movie
didn’t do a very good job of keeping me appraised of which character I should
care most about at any one time. Is it Hugo? Is it Melies? Is it Isabelle, the
little girl? (By the way, I generally like this actress, but her accent and her
acting were just atrocious in this movie. It was a truly unpleasant experience
to watch her on the screen.) Without this knowledge, I can’t read the correct
emotions, the correct relationships I need to in order to feel the correct
emotion as the viewer.
In
addition to the slow pacing, there seemed to be at least a few moments that
were really built up and then had absolutely no payoff. As I already mentioned,
the notebook in the beginning seemed to be of great importance. Hugo begged for
it, screamed for it, demanded it. When he thought it was burned up, Hugo was
CRUSHED. But, like I said above, that quickly fizzled away into the story of
Georges Melies. I cared about that notebook and about Hugo finding it. Then it just
disappeared into nothing. A similar moment of buildup is the beautiful and
iconic scene where the mechanical man flies through the air. (He flies through
the air for about 10 minutes, you can’t miss it. There’s that pacing thing
again.) The slow motion builds up your emotion, builds up your expectation to
see something terrible happen to that machine. Hugo trips and grasps at it, but
it flies through the air. Everyone’s eyes follow it as it arcs up and then
finally down. I was wondering, “Will someone catch it!? What will happen to it
if no one does?!?” Then the machine simply falls with an anticlimactic clunk.
It’s not even visibly dented, and the precise machinery was unaffected. So much
buildup with all the slow motion occurred for that one moment, and the stakes
ended up being very low. It was disappointing.
Now
to return to the character of the policeman. Sacha Baron Cohen is a pretty
funny guy, and he definitely had his moments in this movie. I definitely found
myself laughing when he was in the bathtub. His facial expressions and timing
are often pure gold. However, that is all when the humor is based on his acting
skills. What made this character troubling for me is that much of the time I felt
like I was supposed to laugh at him because he had a bad leg. It felt like I was
supposed to say “HAHA he’s handicapped because he fought in a war. It’s okay
that I’m laughing about that because he’s kind of a douche to orphan children.”
The problem here is the opposite of the problem with the pacing. I think I knew
how I was supposed to feel about that character, but to be honest, it just felt
wrong.
That
said, again, the visuals were simply stunningly beautiful. 100% top notch. I’m
not really a huge fan of 3D, but I was definitely blown away by the
cinematography and the environments that I got to see for this movie. Watching
the mechanical man work, watching the train fly through the station, watching
the clocks ticking, the bustling crowds in the station – it was all wonderful.
I just wish the rest of the movie was as impressive as the visuals.
