The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar: Venice Film Review
Wes Anderson has been on a productive run of late – he debuted Asteroid City in Cannes earlier this year and he premiered his new short, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, in Venice on Friday.
The 39-minute movie, based on the short story by Roald Dahl, tells the tale of Henry Sugar (Benedict Cumberbatch), a rich man who discovers a book about a guru named Imdad Khan (Ben Kingsley), who can see without using his eyes. He learns from Khan’s techniques and sets out to master the skill in order to cheat at gambling.
This short but sweet film delivers exactly what you would expect from a Wes Anderson feature – gorgeous production design, a whimsical tone and lightning-speed dialogue. I didn’t particularly care for the story itself and I couldn’t have stomached a feature-length adaptation so I’m glad it’s a short.
This isn’t a run-of-the-mill adaptation though – the characters tell Dahl’s story directly word-for-word. Dahl, portrayed by Ralph Fiennes, serves as the narrator of the tale and the actors play the scene and recite the author’s words simultaneously. This means, for example, Dev Patel‘s character Dr. Chatterjee is constantly switching between acting in the scene and addressing the audience directly as he narrates his book about Khan. This is a funny device and it’s impressive to watch Patel nail Anderson’s rapid-fire dialogue as he flips between those modes. In fact, the dialogue was so fast that I struggled to keep up with it at times!
The movie feels very much like a theatrical play as the characters speak to the audience more often than not as the sets change around them. The transitions between settings are marvellous and the characters’ movements are meticulously timed.
While there is no weak link in the cast, Patel is the highlight – he works so well with Anderson’s style and tone and I hope this leads to more collaborations between the pair. Richard Ayoade, who plays Chatterjee’s colleague, Dr. Marshall, is another gem here because his deadpan sense of humour works perfectly with the material. In keeping with the theatrical theme, the actors play multiple characters so keep your eyes peeled.
Anderson’s formula works quite well with the short film format as you get a healthy dose of his charms/quirks but not too much. While the story of Henry Sugar might not have been especially wonderful, watching it come to life certainly was.
Screening out of competition at the Venice Film Festival. Streaming on Netflix on 27th September