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I recently saw the move Hugo – and I loved it so much I wanted to write a little something about it. Now, I saw Hugo in 3D and can say unequivocally that it was the best 3D experience I’ve ever had by far, but more on that latter. The movie Hugo has two main themes. It is about the search for love and purpose. And, it is about the magic of movies.

The first theme is rather straight forward. There are a number of characters who for a variety of reasons are lonely, lost, and in need of love. But, more than just love and acceptance, they are in need of a renewed sense of purpose in their life. There are some beautiful and touching moments throughout the movie which develop this theme. There’s not much I can say about this without giving things away, and I wouldn’t really be doing much justice to the story anyway. Suffice it to say the move has depth.

Now this first theme concerning the search for purpose intertwines with the second theme – the magic of movies – because one of the main characters has lost his purpose, which is the art of making movies. As we discover who he is and what happened to him we are shown a wonderful account of the early development of moving pictures. One of Martin Scorsese strengths is his knowledge of film history and he puts that on display in Hugo in a masterful way. As a lover of the art form this was one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever seen. And I think even the casual fan will enjoy it. There is just some wonderful and powerful old footage, including some incredible footage from WWI which is very haunting.

Knowing that Scorsese is such a student of the art of film, and hearing that he had a love for the old 3D movies of his youth I thought he might actually be able to do something special with the new 3D technology. I have not been impressed by a single live action 3D movie so far. I thought A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey was good, but computer animation of that sort lends itself well to 3D. Avatar’s 3D was underwhelming; a few others such as Alice in Wonderland were interesting in 3D but not special. I stopped wanting to watch movies in 3D. Hugo changes that. First its 3D is not like real life, it’s heightened or stylized 3D. There are some good old fashioned 3D gimmicks that are great, and just an incredible sense of space. Overall it just adds so much to the movie without taking anything away. I never felt like things on the periphery were a bit out of focus, or that I had to work at it as I have felt with other movies. Right from the start I was simply marveled.

Hugo manages to be a wonderful movie which not only has a solid enjoyable story, but also manages to have incredible style. It is a story about redemption and a love letter to the art of movies expressed through narrative and style.