Hugo

Watched a nice family film this afternoon: Hugo, directed by Martin Scorsese. Fascinating subject - the rediscovery of pioneer French film-maker Georges Méliès who, after his dalliance with fame, fell upon hard times after the First World War and ended up working in a toyshop in the Gare Montparnasse unbeknownst to virtually everyone. It's based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by American author Brian Selznick, which invents the character of Hugo but otherwise sticks reasonably close to the truth. The two child actors are great, so too Ben Kingsley as the grumpy Méliès. But the real surprise is Sacha Baron Cohen as the station inspector who brings a bit of Borat to a character which might otherwise have been too straight-forward nasty. And of course it looked great, even if we watched it in 2 not 3D.