Hugo
Hugo is Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) a boy who lives within the walls and clock tower mechanics of the Paris train station during the golden age of steam in 1930’s France. He was the ward of drunken Uncle Claude (Ray Winstone) since his father (Jude Law) died. Before abandoning Hugo, Uncle Clause taught him his trade as keeper of the station clocks - a job Hugo continued in his uncle’s absence to avoid the orphanage. For some time he manages to dodge the long arm and war wounded leg of the Station Inspector (a subdued Sacha Baron Cohen who still gets all the laughs) who keeps one eye out for delinquents and the other on flower shop proprietor Lisette (Emily Mortimer). Hugo ekes out an existence on the avails of the station commerce until he’s busted by toy store proprietor George (Ben Kingsley). Through George’s kind god daughter Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz) we discover George has a connection to the only remnant Hugo has of his parents - a magical automaton rescued from the museum fire that consumed his father. This gorgeously presented film while juxtaposing the industry’s earliest ingenuity against today’s most advanced 3D technology takes its time revealing its true purpose. This gloriously marvellous film is not so much a boy’s adventure as an homage to groundbreaking cinematographer Georges Méliès by one of today’s most prolific movie makers, Martin Scorsese.