Hugo Cabret

When the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret first arrived in bookstores I must confess I read half of it standing in an aisle at Barnes & Noble. Maybe not the best of circumstances but it’s the kind of book that’s an easy read and, well, it just happened. At the time I thought it was good and I liked the story line, but I was kind of disappointed in its merely ordinary writing (I wanted it to be more lyrical and seductive) and, even more, I was not all that impressed by the illustrative drawings. They are also good but, again, ordinary, and I remember thinking at the time I wished this same imaginative subject had been tackled by a better writer and a better artist. The fact it subsequently won The Caldecott Medal (for illustrated children’s literature) didn’t change my mind. I can be pretty awful in that way sometimes.

And then I read that President Obama took his daughters to a small bookstore near the White House (on Small Business Saturday) and bought a copy. Well, damn, says I to myself…maybe I should at least give it a fairer chance at entering my consciousness; but this time I didn’t shag it from B&N and actually bought it. My opinion remains unchanged.

So now it’s been made into a “major motion picture” and, although I liked it, I feel the same way! That is, I think it was directed by the wrong person (Martin Scorsese). Hugo needed someone more in tune with the whimsy of a book a little short on whimsy itself; someone whose vision could encompass the implied “magic” of the story. Someone not glued to the floor by our memory of Taxi Driver and/or Raging Bull. I can’t describe exactly how I feel about it other than saying it left me uneasy and unfulfilled. Again, like the book, I wanted at least some magic and what I’ve taken away from the screening is the memory of a lot of characters running through throngs at the Paris train station. I’m not sure why I should be surprised. I was less than enamored of the book, why did I think I would be charmed by the movie based on it?

And too (I’ve bitched about this before), I’m of the fuddyduddy generation that is mired in the past with fond memories of some wonderful 2-D movies. I guess 3-D is the future but those damn (required) glasses are an abomination. And the smallish bag of M&M Peanut cost $4.75!