La maravillosa historia de Henry Sugar

I have not read The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar by Roald Dahl, so I was unsure what to expect from this short film, but I was pleasantly surprised. The plot follows Henry Sugar when he finds a book about man who could see with his eyes closed, and from there, Henry Sugar attempts to learn how to do the same. The art style and direction of the film is unlike anything I have watched before thanks to Wes Anderson's directing. Benedict Cumberbatch is fantastic as Henry Sugar, and I quite liked the supporting cast as well. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is worth watching, and you will not regret spending the time on this book to film adaptation.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is a great short film that doesn't waste a second of its shorter run time and definitely works as a short film in a way a feature length film simply cannot. The energy, the pace and the complexity comes together so well in an exhilarating, immaculate story of kindness.

Unusually, this is a cast who are mostly new to the world of Wes but Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel and Ben Kingsley are note perfect here in a way that hopefully results in many more future collaborations. Richard Ayoade on the other hand, feels surprisingly underutilised.

Wes Anderson has never had more control of the frame or everything inside it. It's standard issue that it's going to be gorgeous to look at and rife with detail but the real strength of his direction here is the way it's able to feel so theatrical in its construction yet still be inherently cinematic.

'The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar (2023)' is one of four short film adaptations of lesser-known Roald Dahl stories to be directed by Wes Anderson, who has perhaps finally achieved unabashed twee overload with what can only be described as four near-lethal injections of the purest concentrate of his trademark style, and dumped unceremoniously on Netflix. This piece tells the story of a rich man who one day finds the key to becoming even richer: an account of a man who is able to see without using his eyes and the method needed to achieve this. It's pretty much a word-for-word translation of the source material, with narration that runs constantly and bounces from character to character (who often tell us, the audience, about what they're doing while they're doing it). It's all third person, too, so even Henry Sugar refers to himself as such. This is because the whole thing is actually being read by Dahl himself, who appears intermittently to frame the story as a true account of something he himself was once told. As the tale is spoken to us, the sets deconstruct themselves around the actors in a complex dance that's quite a sight to behold. The whole thing feels like an incredibly complicated stage play, complete with prop-wielding stage hands and just off-screen costume swaps, which is definitely a unique approach to take. The pacing is so fast that the flick often leaves you breathless, primarily because every single character is talking like they're absolutely desperate to get out of there but can't leave until they've finished their part. At the same time, though, it ultimately feels a bit too long for its own good. After all, there's only so much verbal bombardment a person can take, as entertaining as that bombardment may be. Ultimately, this is a refreshingly distinct and expertly crafted short film that kind of represents too much of a good thing. It's enjoyable, but overwhelming.

I am not familliar with any previous works or repuation of the creators whatsover, I just watched this short movie out of curiosity since it was on Netflix.

So this seemed to be a sort of first person narrative where the characters speak the story themselves? Think of it when a person reads a book out loud at home, but in this case they are reading to us the viewers.

The story of this piece focused on various qualities of generosity and depthful feelings. It was interesting to see the characters describe their feelings while not showing any type of emotions. Due to the nature of this film, I wasn't sure what to think, the concept is good but I found it perplexing.

My only issue is the pacing, I am unsure if this was on purpose or not. This flim piece moved way too fast, to where even I had trouble keeping up or understanding what was going on. Perhaps this is how the film was designed to be or I needed a deeper level of understanding?

As much as this is pure Uncut 1100% pure white as the driven snow Wes Anderson, including one of his most thrilling tracking shots and rear-screen projection that made me laugh hard enough for the neighbors to sit up and probably want to check it out for themselves, it is also a perfect distillation of Roald Dahl's perfectly eccentric and wildly over-elaborate storytelling and construction of one plot into another.

Maybe you haven't read Dahl in a while if you were one of those kids who read him a lot (I know he has a reputation today, but he could objectively write comedy and quirk like nobody's business), but even if that's so the recognition of his voice will come back to you like a long dormant dream. It's also fascinating to see the clockwork-theatrical staging from Asteroid City taken even further. I'd ask him why he doesn't direct theater, but then he would look at me like I was a fool - why do that when he has the overwhelming power of control of the Frame of Cinema at his disposal?

The thing about this Henry Sugar film that I like on top of the perfectly calibrated balancing act between very human comedy and quixotic and deadpan fantasy that we know Anderson can do in his sleep (though I imagine as easy as it looks it takes a lot of concentration to get right with DP Yeoman), the performances are just right and add to the flavor of the piece. Call it shallow, but I just enjoy how soothing the voices of Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Kingsley and even to an extent Fiennes are, like they could almost be ASMR-ing you with the Dahl words that get spun like a marathon sprinter who is running in this precision that dazzles you because it almost is inexplicable (just like, I might posit for comparison, what the men can see with their eyes closed after concentrating hard for days and years on end).

Last but not least: Benedict Cumberbatch in a dress = most unlikely kind of attractive walking cartoon in a dress since Bugs Bunny.