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"Hugo" is the best movie legendary director Martin Scorsese has made in 20 years - since "Goodfellas."
And while he's made movies similar to "Goodfellas," he's never done anything like this.
"Hugo" is a fantasy epic - breathtaking in its appearance and scope of imagination.
Based on a book by Brian Selznick, the young boy and the story at the center of it could have come right out of a Dickens novel. Played by a terrific Asa Butterfield, Hugo Cabret is an orphan who lives in the clock tower of a train station in Paris in the 1930s.
His father left behind a mechanical man he was working on repairing - and young Hugo's working to finish it by stealing parts - until he's caught.
Sir Ben Kingsley is a toy maker named Georges Melies, and film buffs will know that name because he was a famous French filmmaker, credited with many innovations including special effects. Throughout the course of the movie, young Hugo discovers who this man was, and how he put dreams on screen.
Like Scorsese himself, "Hugo" is deliriously in love with movies. And indeed, the new movie acts as something of a lesson on the silent film era. But it's the most thrilling and beautiful class you'll ever take.
And in telling the story of a technological pioneer in the film industry, Scorsese himself works wonders with 3D, using it to add depth to the frame and the story.
There's heart and passion pulsating throughout this entire film - and in turn, it's a film to fall madly in love with.
EPPLER'S RATING: * * * * *
Out of five stars
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