Hugo in 3D

Movie: Hugo in 3D

Genre: adventure-drama-fantasy

Synopsis: This is set in a train station in 1930’s Paris.  Hugo is an orphan who lives in – and winds – the massive clockworks in the train station.  He is terribly lonely and is trying to fix an automaton – a kind of wind-up robot-like creation - to be his companion.  He befriends Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz) whose god-father (Ben Kingsley) runs a fix-it shop in the train station.  When, with the help of Isabelle, he finally fixes the automaton – a surprise and mystery awaits the two of them.  Solving the mystery – and keeping out of the clutches of the train station policeman (Sasha Baron Cohen) takes up the rest of the movie.

My two cents: Although a bit long at 2:07, this movie never dragged.  Within the first five minutes, I knew it was going to be good.  The 3D effects were good, without overdoing it.  I have been a fan of  Chloë Grace Moretz since “500 Days of Summer” – and I really liked her in this.  Ben Kingsley was great at Isabelle’s god-father, Christopher Lee was great as kindly bookseller.  Sasha Baron Cohen was good – but strange – as the train station cop.  I am still not sure exactly what it is about this movie that so captivated me.  One measure of how good I think a movie is, is how far into the movie I get before I look at my watch.  I was 85 minutes into the movie before I checked the time.

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