A very good review, Marshall, and one I completely agree with. There is a big difference between something being open to interpretation and downright confusion. The most confusing aspect being – what happened to the third brother? Surprised you haven’t mentioned it.

There may be endless discussions about its high art status but ultimately it comes down to what you ‘feel’ when you watch it. The Kubrick homage was fantastic. Loved the music and the cinematography. Didn’t get the same feeling for the boys’ story. The depiction of child innocence seemed to be shoved down my throat. I thought the boys were too playful on the verge of Attention Deficit. And all the touching and cuddling? Even with a strict father to galvanize their relationship, young boys are simply not that affectionate.

After a while, all the whispering became irritating, and then it felt like I was being preached to. Another irritant was the over-use of symbolism, which felt like it was there for symbolism’s sake. The mask sinking in the water?

This is a great film to stimulate discussion, and to polarize like the guy above said, but emotionally, it left me cold. Purposeless pretension.

“..dark flip side of auteurism.” – some great lines in your review. Very inciteful, indeed.

Well, we’ll see how it all plays out in a month from now!

It’s no secret that I love this unabashedly. Interestingly, Logan’s script is problematic in a few ways– notably in how it approaches its mystery with cheap tactics, specifically the way characters hold back information that would progress the mystery for no appreciable reason. And the two halves of the film gel together rather strangely. But Hugo isn’t a film about celebrating the screenwriter, it’s a film about the power of the director. Scorsese directs the hell out of this. It’s not vintage Scorsese, but I wouldn’t expect that of him, and what he does with this is nothing short of marvelous. Hugo is transporting, and conveys the emotions on which it so heavily rides with perfect accuracy; it’s a movie that lives or dies on its ability to enchant you and sway you with its magic. For me, that’s exactly what it did.

You’re not the first person to express hate for Cohen. What gives? If anything I think he should be looking for more “real” roles and give up on his retinue of personae. He’s better here playing the oafish, rigid, but good-at-heart policeman than he has any business being. Then again, I did think he was the best thing about 2007′s horrendous Sweeney Todd.