La meravigliosa storia di Henry Sugar

"This is a terrific piece of book-to-film adaptation", I cried. "I read the book in preparation for the film and I can say with utmost certainty that...", I drank a cup of water to catch my breath, "...that almost every piece of dialogue in the film, not counting the name changes, are almost word for word from the book", I stood up from my chair and slowly applauded for the film, "Indubitably Anderson's most loquacious and experimental work to date. The way he plays with the medium of storytelling is admirable at least. Unfortunately this unorthodox storytelling style is not for every sophisticated individual in the planet", I sat down and happily sighed. "I hope to see this marvelous short film again in the future"

'The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar' is the first of four shorts by Wes Anderson. This production is the perfect visualization of a book. The transitions are peculiar and they contributed greatly to make the story flow smoothly. The editing was absolutely phenomenal with a few cuts placed in the right moments. The 1.33:1 aspect ratio immersed me even more in the story. All the trademarks of the director are there: the perfect symmetry of the sets, the actor placed exactly in the right spot and the fairy mood. The plot is engaging and exotic. I like the development and I was genuinely curious to see how everything was going to wrap up. This is how you tell a trivial story in an original and fresh way. The cast is composed of many great actors: with a team such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley you know that simply you cannot go wrong. All of them have a very pleasant and clean British accent, which for me is an added value. My final mark is 7.5 stars out of 10.

I'm watching a pop-up storybook; colors, editing, and composition are stylish and adorable. However, actors read lines too fast. I'm out of breath just by watching. I'm not sure Anderson was intentional to daze the audience, but it does not work on short films. The audience is ready to engage and focus at least for forty minutes. It might have worked in a two-hour film.

I'm watching a pop-up storybook; colors, editing, and composition are stylish and adorable. However, actors read lines too fast. I'm out of breath just by watching. I'm not sure Anderson was intentional to daze the audience, but it does not work on short films. The audience is ready to engage and focus at least for forty minutes. It might have worked in a two-hour film.

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?

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.