What I Watched -- Hugo

I read Brian Selznick's second book, Wonderstruck.  For some reason though, I never The Invention of Hugo Cabret, his first book and winner of the Caldecott Medal, which recognizes the "artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children," in 2008.

Hugo, the movie version of the book, was another one of the (many) movies I didn't manage to see before the Oscars this year, even though I wanted to.  So here I am, six months later, finally getting around to it.  (It was 105 degress in St. Louis on the day I watched this movie.  A little snow in Paris never looked so lovely.)

Hugo was nominated for ten Oscars and won five, including art direction and cinematography.  I actually saw all the movies nominated for art direction and four of the five nominated for cinematography.  Other than a possible win for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 in the art direction category, I'm not the least bit surprised that Hugo won.

On to the actual movie.  It is every but the ode to the magic of movie-making that critics accused it of being.  But if you can put that aside, it's a fun story.  Hugo is an orphan living in a Paris train station, and it's his job to keep the clocks running.  At night he is working hard to find a hidden message from his deceased father.  He befriends Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz, whom I have loved in all two of the things I have seen her in) and together the two of them get into trouble.  Typical stuff, but charming.

I do have one major complaint though: why does a movie set in Paris, where the characters have French names (Hugo Cabret, Isabelle with two l's and an e, Georges Melies, Lisette), use British accents?  The Eiffel Tower is a major visual set piece, people!  I know geography lessons have fallen by the wayside in schools, but, really?

Bottom line: predictably bow-tied, but sweet.