Surely one of the people Asa Butterfield has to thank for landing his role as Ender Wiggin in Ender’s Game is Martin Scorsese. His previous titular role as Hugo Cabret in Scorsese’s 2011 film Hugo made him one of the most prominent young stars around.
Yes, being a movie enthusiast, I get pleasure out of seeing Scorsese represent a chapter in film history in dazzling cinematic spectacle, but one of the most enjoyable things about Hugo is the way the character is one of those movie figures who knows precisely when to take things in and when to act.
It’s important that Hugo and Butterfield in his performance don’t upstage the magic that’s transpiring in front of us, but also to mirror back to us our own sense of wonder (not unlike the way Spielberg’s characters stare at things in amazement). This is then something to propel the action even further, granting our wishes and setting in motion events that are as important to the story as they are to the spectacle.
Hugo himself is not so precocious to be frustrating but curious enough to justify his interest in his father’s mechanical pursuits. This is as good a balance as there can be for child protagonists.
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Published: Nov 10, 2013 12:02 pm