Movie Ambush

Butterfield and Moretz

My wife and I have set aside Tuesday night as our weekly “date night”.  We spend that evening with each other; usually at the movies (my wife is really cool).  Last night I was confronted with something of a quandary.  I had seen all of the movies at the local theater that I considered worth seeing.  I hadn’t heard very much about “Hugo” and what I had heard, for the most part, I had forgotten.  We decided to take a chance and check it out.  I wasn't expecting much but I was almost immediately transported to Paris between the wars by the incredible texture of this movie and some truly astounding camera shots.  The special effects were amazing but not “in your face” as with so many of today’s movies.  The hero is an orphan who winds clocks hiding out at the train station while repairing mechanical toys.  The cast was truly interesting with the always great Ben Kingsely but the two young stars of the movie, Asa Butterfield and Chloe Grace Moretz, were the best part.  I’ve loved Moretz in everything she’s done, especially as Hit Girl in the movie Kick Ass and Butterfield was every bit as good.  I think we’ll be hearing great things about these two for many years to come.  There are some established actors in very small roles which is something I love.  Even Sacha Baron Choen, whom I usually don’t like, is under control as a semi-villain, and against all odds actually shows some nuance.  The funniest part was that after the movie as I walked into the atrium of the theater I glanced at the movie’s poster and realized for the first time that it was a Martin Scorsese movie.   This whimsical fare was completely out of his normal routine, but he hit a home run with this great movie which has a lot of heart. Any true lover of cinema, as Scorsese certainly is, will appreciate this movie because it ends up being an ode to the love of movies, in this case during the birth of cinema.  Sometimes ambushes end up well, go see Hugo.