It’s been 20 minutes since I left the theater and I have a feeling I will be thinking about Hugo all night. I expected to enjoy the movie, since reviews have been unbelievably kind to it. I did not, however, think that it would be as lovely as it was, or as touching as it was. I imagined it would be a fun children’s movie that lifted my spirits and left me smiling. It was a horrible judgement on my part, and while it did lift my spirits and I’m still smiling, it is far from your average children’s movie.

With familiar themes of family, friendship, and love, the movie takes them to incredible depths and surrounds them with light, indescribable color, and perfection. If anything the pure production value of the movie is something to relish in. Add 3D and I can feel myself in Hugo’s world just by closing my eyes.

As a photographer I adore when movies exist that inspire me to create. Last year The King’s Speech allowed me to see subjects as a piece of the portrait, instead of the entire thing. I became more aware of how surroundings can add to the personality of a portrait rather than take away from the personality of the person.

Hugo has solidified my particular love and use of light to enhance, and draw out the beauty in my subjects and their surroundings. Light was a major part of the movie, in fact, light was it’s own character in the movie. It was able to change the mood of a scene with a simple flicker. It made moments haunting, and other moments so powerful. It was used so effectively, and so brilliantly that I was lost in the actors’ eyes and the sets’ details, while being gripped by the storyline. I could not ask for anything more than that.