A la recherche du temps perdu

Hugo 3D is Martin Scorsese’s first child-friendly family film and the first thing to say about Martin Scorsese’s first child-friendly family film is that it is a visual wonder: rich, lush, beautiful, gorgeous. But the second thing to say is nothing else is as exciting as the look of it and if there is a third thing it is this: Hugo himself is rather boringly bland and I didn’t much care for him. Honestly, you can wait ages for one thing to say and then three come along at once. Isn’t that always the way?

The source material is the graphic novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick about a small orphaned boy (played here by Asa Butterfield) who lives a secret life keeping the clocks running at Montparnasse station in 1930s Paris, and the opening shot may be the most stunning opening shot in cinema ever as Scorsese’s camera rushes thrillingly along the train tracks and across the bustling concourse and halts at the gigantic station clock, where small, bright-blue eyes peep out from behind the number four.