Barring an 11th hour miracle from one of the last half dozen film of 2011 that I still have to see, this will be my favorite movie of the year. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to love this movie all too much. For starters, I’ve only recently started to like director Martin Scorsese’s movies. I never cared for his earlier films. It’s just his latest handful of films since The Aviator that I’ve quite liked. Second, the trailers for this movie played up the slapstick, “kid movie” elements way too much. Frankly, after seeing the film, I consider the advertising campaign for the movie to be one of the worst and most misrepresenting in years. It almost kept me from seeing the movie, and that would have been a massive shame, because I absolutely adored this movie. This is a masterpiece of film making.

Writing: I’ve never read the book on which this film is based. I know of it, but haven’t actually read it at all (my nephew got it for Christmas, so perhaps I’ll take a look at his at some point). The story is really quite touching and sentimental, populated by an array of varied characters. This is essentially a love letter to the early years of cinema, and storytelling in general. It’s charming and nostalgic on an order of magnitude rarely accomplished. At least not without crossing the line into utter schmaltz. This one dances along that line very carefully, and succeeds. It does a nice job at recapturing the life of legendary director Georges Melies (inventor of a great many film techniques during the earliest years of cinema).

Production: There’s a hard-to-describe quality to this production. It’s both gritty and realistic, while at the same time feels completely idealistic and storybook. In the end, it’s a perfect fit for the material – it feels like somebody assembling stylistic storytelling. It’s a somewhat unique blend of reality and unreality, while at the same time being a visually striking period piece. The cold, winter, 1930′s Paris is brought to life quite nicely. Visual and set design are top notch, with huge amounts of detail, which is again fitting for a movie about characters that are so intensely interested in the details of things. I haven’t actually been too big of a fan of the modern 3D craze. I typically consider it a distraction to most films than a benefit. I’ve liked the 3D in a small handful of films to date (Avatar, Tron: Legacy, Coraline and a couple others perhaps). Well, add this one to the list. This might be the best 3D I’ve seen. I’m sure this movie looks great in 2D as well. The movie does a fantastic job at capturing that early era of cinema, and the years that followed as it became an actual industry. I have to imagine that Melies would be equally amused and impressed by the film production effort taken to recapture the story of his career. The film has some fun working in some real history as it goes, like working in legendary musician Django Reinhardt.

Cast: What a wonderful cast. Truly, a splendid cast. Asa Butterfield, the young boy who plays the titular role of Hugo, has impressed me previously with his performance in the lead role of the excellent The Boy In The Striped Pajamas. He is excellent here as Hugo. He has the wide-eyed innocence that the role needs but also nails the more emotional and earnest aspects of the character. The brilliant Chloe Grace Moretz has already shown her crazy versatility, with dozens of roles in TV and film, and she’s only 14. From her star-making role as the ultra-violent Hit Girl in Kick-Ass to the spectacularly vulnerable and subtle vampire character of Abby in Let Me In (the greatest Vampire movie in decades – or possibly ever as far as I’m concerned), Moretz has a massive career ahead of her, to be sure. She is wonderful in Hugo. Unlike some of her other more recent roles of note, she is all about light-hearted positivity as Isabelle in this film. The great Ben Kingsley is marvelous as Melies. He nails the deflated and hardened character to perfection. Other supporting roles are cast with world class actors, such as Christopher Lee, Emily Mortimer, Ray Winstone and more. They are all great in their roles. Jude Law is great in his brief role, and he connects perfectly with Butterfield in their scenes together. The real surprise is how well Sacha Baron Cohen pulls off his daffy but charming antagonist character. One of the things that makes this movie great is that even the bad guy, such as he is, is made into a sympathetic and ultimately endearing character.

Music: As a frequent collaborator of Martin Scorsese in recent years, it was hardly a surprise to find out that Howard Shore would be scoring this movie. His score is spot-on perfect. It adeptly works in and around music of the locale and period, while at the same time feeling contemporary and accessible. It has a bounce and sense of delight that raises the movie that extra notch to a level of sublime magic. It’s one of his best scores in a while.

This movie is as touching a tribute to the early years of cinema as there will likely ever be. And at the same time, it’s an endearing character movie with a charming storybook style. Everyone, of all ages, get out there and see this movie. It’s perfect for the entire family.