An exhilarating tale of magic, machines, memories, and dreams, Martin Scorsese pulls off the neatest trick of all. He marshals the marvels of modern movie technology – up to and including the dreaded 3-D – to create a love letter to the earliest of movies and, by extension, to every movie from then to now.

In attempting to make his first film for all ages, Martin Scorsese has fashioned one for the ages. Simultaneously classical and modern, populist but also unapologetically personal, Hugo flagrantly defies the mind-numbing quality of most contempo kidpics.

All the actors are wonderful, including Sacha Baron Cohen as a villainous Inspector.

The way Hugo deals with Melies is enchanting in itself, but the film’s first half is devoted to the escapades of its young hero. In the way the film uses CGI and other techniques to create the train station and the city, the movie is breathtaking.

Hugo is superbly playful.

Hugo both ticks and flies by, a marvel meant to be pulled from the cabinet and enjoyed again and again.

Waves of melancholy wash over the story and keep the treacle at bay, as do the spasms of broad comedy, much of it nimbly executed by Mr. Baron Cohen.

Overall, however, the manner in which the film blends the tale of an imperiled boy and the history of cinema makes for an ambitious and fanciful ride.

Scorsese builds Hugo in the Méliès manner, creating a complete, ravishing Parisian world on a soundstage in England and reveling in the sheer transporting joy of it. Hugo will take your breath away.

Strangely, Scorsese’s very passion for the subject matter turns out to be both a blessing and a curse for Hugo.