The Adventures Of Tintin (2011) Movie Review

Yes, the original plan was to post a few days from now. But I would be remiss if I didn't share several words regarding the newly released supergroup project based on Georges Remi (Herge)'s legendary comic strip creation, The Adventures Of Tintin. The much-awaited collaboration between Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, and featuring a script by Steven Moffat, along with Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish, offers a rip-roaring example of what is possible with three-dimensional animation technology melded properly with the very idea of bringing a comic character and his world to life. It's a seamless marriage that showcases much of what has made The Beard the cinema legend has has been for so long, and at the same time plays well with the source material that served as an inspiration for so many filmmakers of the past. It is also evidence that perhaps it was necessary for technology to reach a certain point in order to best sell certain storytelling approaches. For every time a movie fan decries a nuclear test sending a refrigerator into the sky, only to land, open and spilled out our hero unharmed as he continues to stare at a mushroom cloud a distance away, it is filmmaking such as this that can sell it, and work. Suddenly, the story takes center stage with the spectacle. Something that has often eluded fantasy film since the advent of computer generated effects. And as recently mentioned, had the story not been so well conceived, such an event would hardly be as potent..


Tintin is a young , Belgian reporter with a penchant for adventure who is again tumbling into trouble over a rare model replica of a lost at sea ship known as The Unicorn. With his semi-reliable Fox-Terrier companion, Snowy, things become ever more complicated as dangerous parties are relentless in the secrets that lie within the model. Complications which eventually lead Tintin into meeting the near-washed up drunkard ship captain Haddock(Andy Serkis), ultimately setting off a chase around the globe against the nefarious Ivan Sakharine and his gang, also intent on unlocking the secret of the Unicorn, while using the wayward helmsman as key. Also along for the ride, are geek royalty, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as the hopeless duo from Interpol, Thomson & Thompson. Straight out of three of Herge's book collections, The Crab With The Golden Claws(1941), The Secret Of The Unicorn(1945), and Red Rackham's Treasure(1945), Spielberg and company fashion a wildly entertaining cross between loving tribute, and adventure romp on par with one of the famed director's most beloved genre legacies before a certain Crystal Skull came to prominence.


Without delving any deeper into what in many ways is a simpler plot than the twists suggests, another arrow in the quiver is in just how much Spielberg and company are finally able to experiment with the motion capture technology in ways that not only drive the thrill level up by notches, but enhances the very concept of what it is to be an observer in a film. Geography and setup are key elements in delivering what are an impressive array of comedic and action sequences that deliver as much character exposition as raised hairs. The prep work must have been both liberating and punishing, as it become clear that the tools are being utilized to their fullest, even in ways that eluded James Cameron a few short years back. It's rare when we get this much direction in a film that contains as much slapstick and non-verbal action these days, and Tintin offers a textbook example in how much one can learn about characters merely by their actions. Great moments include our hero's "trusty" dog, Snowy, and his tendency to be distracted, and Captain Haddock's bumbling becoming a boon rather than an obstacle when held up near an dangling lifeboat..Perhaps the largest, most impressive example is the dizzying downhill chasing of a raven down the hills of Bagghar. It is an Indy special gone Rube Goldberg berzerk, and could only be done now. And in 3D, it is only made greater.

Again, as an honest to goodness adventure film, this is much less about nuance and character, but what is present is a bounty of wonderful performances by Jamie Bell, as a wide-eyed and likeable Tintin, and Daniel Craig(another Bond gone bad for Mr. Wright?) as Sakharine. But the biggest triumph (again) is the lovely work of Andy Serkis, who grants Haddock three dimensions that even the current CG couldn't do on its own. It's a winning role that cements the character as one of my favorites of the year. And as much of the story operates on a move, it's surprising how far an old school storytelling approach works when played perfectly straight. And seeing as how this is planned to be a series, the only misstep might have been the very end. But even at that point, the characters have proven themselves so likeable, it becomes hard to fault it when the adventure has only just begun. 2011 has ended with an unexpected bang. One that thrillingly answers some long elusive questions about approach, and challenges what we've known about adaptations. It's a welcome melange, and possibly Spielberg's best pure balls-out adventure film since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Hugo (2011) Movie Review

At this moment, I'm completely beside myself with joy, and maybe a little irritation at the very idea that not only did I catch this film weeks until release, but that there is only so much time remaining before this theatrical 3D event comes to an end. There is such a universe of loving craft to be shared within HUGO's heartfelt 127 minutes, that a simple one-off review from a simple blogger would only do it a fraction of service. As the film's marketing campaign completely failed to deliver; there is something of a completely different film, no doubt dodged intentionally. One can see a studio getting cold feet upon realizing that what manner of tapestry this master filmmaker has fashioned; it is a family-geared work of the most classical nature, complete with the wistful imagination and patience of those so clearly inspiring generations past. With the latest in technology, Martin Scorsese takes Brian Selznick's beautiful semi-biographical book, and composes a spectacular and sublime love letter to the power of not only film, but of human ingenuity as a healing force.

Set in a romanticized version of Paris in the early 1930s, little Hugo Cabret, the son of a clockmaker has recently lost his father, and has been surviving day to day, maintaining the clockworks of a large train station central to town. With no guardians, or school to contend with, his core struggle has been to finish repairing a mysterious find his father made in the days before his death. This rusty old automaton remains the final link between Hugo and his father, and with the parts he occasionally steals from a local toy booth run by an embittered old man, the feeling that a cycle could be closed by getting the machine to work. His daily fears of being apprehended not only by the old man, but of the station's dogged, yet simple-minded inspector begin to come to a head when he is finally caught attempting to steal a mechanical mouse. And it is within this event that he meets Isabelle, herself once an orphan, and now in the care of the old man, Papa Georges, and his wife, Mama Jeanne. A storybookworm in the extreme, Isabelle eventually begins to serve as a branching point between Hugo, and Georges when it is discovered that they both share pieces of a secret, one that could alter both lives forever.

Immediately, Scorsese's obsession to master what James Cameron had helped pioneer into almost cinema ghettodom  is made apparent with perhaps one of the most thrilling opening shots of any film, anywhere. We are not simply told the story through John Logan's solid prose, the director's eye, along with the ever terrific design work of Dante Feretti, we are thrust into Hugo's world with the kind of love and reverence that even AVATAR couldn't afford itself. In fact, one could go so far as to suggest that this is the film Cameron's work was meant to be; a epoch making crossroads charting & celebrating the evolution of visualized storytelling. And in that, it may surprise some to know just how disarmingly intimate the film is. With the cameras flowingly shadowing our central character's movements, we are given a solid geography of what Hugo's life has orbited around, and the sights he is privy to on a regular basis. (which also grants us more insight into one of the film's more endearing sentiments; everyone has a story.) So when it comes to his and Isabelle's discoveries, it does so within an unexpectedly small, yet somehow lush environment that offers volumes more to consider than an alien planet ever could. It is in the observational, that the film milks its greatest strengths, again owing great amounts to the filmmaking pioneers of the long past, an age when film was virtually inseparable from magic, and that risk, ingenuity and an enterprising spirit were at the forefront of capturing the stories and dreams of a world. It's that rare mesh of story and technique that makes for a virtuoso experience in how substance can be defined by style. Made all the more refined by Thelma Schoonmaker's brilliant as ever editing.

In the performance realm, HUGO is packed with terrific work from Asa Butterfield, who's sad-eyed work is a terrific analogue for the director, and in turn the audience. Once again, Chloe Grace Moretz continues to impress as the adventurous counterpart who becomes key in the tale's engine. Her growing importance in the story, makes for an engrossing bait and switch theme-wise, and is only made greater by her sincerity in the role. Also great fun is Sacha Baron Cohen as Inspector Gustav, who's bumbling fool eventually becomes a complex & sympathetic extension of what is happening with the film's throughline. What could so easily have been what the marketing had suggested, becomes another arrow in the movie's arsenal, and it is effective. But the truest triumph of the film belongs to Ben Kinsgley and Helen McCrory in the roles of Papa Georges and Mama Jeanne, characters that truly evoke complete histories in almost miraculously short running time. Both shine so beautifully in these roles, that it become hard to not see them as the two they eventually are revealed to be.

Strangely enough, the sentiments brought about here, are not terribly far from what Scorsese had explored in the more adult-oriented Shutter Island, where inventiveness & patience run hard into harsh realities at the cost of forward progression. Themes of not only seeking self-purpose, but of how all good works fulfilling a human need flow like water throughout the narrative. These films embrace not so much technology, but of those seeking to heal and change their worlds through it. Unlike so many filmmakers who have come and gone over the decades, it is heartening to see such a legend embrace such changes by reminding viewers of the importance found in making peace and seeking solutions rather than avoiding past pains. In many instances, HUGO can be seen as an "antidote" response to Shutter Island, where hope thrives in the young and new, as well as respect & love to those that have come before. It is perhaps the most beautiful love letter to stories and film since Cinema Paradiso, and now my irritation has slipped into sadness because more people simply must experience this in the manner for which it was crafted. A unabashedly sincere, bravura performance.