The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is a short film based on the short story of the same name by Roald Dahl. It was written and directed for the screen by Wes Anderson and produced along with Steven Rales and Jeremy Dawson. The total runtime of the film is about 39 minutes.
The ensemble cast of the film includes Ralph Fiennes (Roald Dahl, Policeman), Benedict Cumberbatch (Henry Sugar, Max Engelman), Dev Patel (Dr. Chatterjee, John Winston), Ben Kingsley (Imdad Khan, Croupier), and Richard Ayoade (Dr. Marshall, Yogi).
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The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar Review
The film tells the short story as it is, even iterating the exact words in the way they were written on paper as dialogues. It shows how a rich man whose real name is not known but we can call him Henry Sugar. Ralph Fiennes plays the role of Roald Dahl and narrates how he came to write the story. He describes Henry as a 41-year-old unmarried but rich man. Emphasis on the unmarried as he refused to share his money with someone else and was obsessed with the idea of making a lot of money.
While visiting Sir William, he comes across a thin green book and learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes. That’s when we meet Ben Kingsley as Imdad Khan, an old man who ran away from home at 13 and learnt the skill of being able to see even with his eyes covered with metres of clothes. The book contains the exact ways how he acquired the extraordinary skill and it gives Henry the idea to master the skill in order to cheat at gambling.
Henry sets out to excel in the skill by any means and ends up spending years in order to see through the upside-down cards. And it does win him a lot of money than expected, what he didn’t realise was that the years of isolated practice had also changed him in many ways. Thus, he decides to do something good with the money he wins from gambling.
The film is a prime example of Wes Anderson’s style mixed with a stage play. The way all the props and everything can be moved in a scene and the story progresses with what feels like a seamless one-shot, the whole film is like an immersive stage play with a heartwarming plot at its core. During the past few months, there has been a viral trend to present videos in Anderson’s style and it would be fair to say, that nobody can surpass his craft than the originator himself.
The transition from one scene to another with the background image being pulled apart to reveal a new setting felt quite nostalgic – something that was done in the older films. It also excellently showcases how storytelling can be done with the use of still props and sound play/design.
Using words and sound to urge the viewers to imagine some of the things happening in the story creates an immersive experience but also shows that one can present a good story in such a confined yet creative manner. Despite being a bit sceptical about how would Anderson treat Dahl’s story, needless to say, it has created much anticipation for the next three films that are yet to come this week, i.e. The Swan, The Ratcatcher, and Poison.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is available for streaming on Netflix.
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