Hugo
Do dreams matter? To Martin Scorsese via Hugo, the answer is yes. Dreams, as we see them in our mind's sleeping eye, are one of the great mysteries of humanity. Are dreams our reality and vice versa (e.g. The Matrix)? Are we being spoken to by someone or something from beyond? Can we affect our dreams with our waking lives? In indirect form, all of these questions are in play in Hugo. The familiar storyline of a boy losing his father and being left a secret message is a gentle in to a deeper storyline. In order to access all of it, the viewer may have to understand what it is to have dreamed, risked and, likely, lost at some point. That is the discovery of film pioneer George Melies that occurs early in the film for Hugo. They are similar in their passions and talent, but at opposite ends of the spectrum: Hugo is young and just discovering, Melies is old and bitter about what he has lost. In the middle of the journey is the idea of magic. Like dreams, magic is addressed lite...