Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Phew! “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” by Wes Anderson is based on a short story by Roald Dahl and turned out to be a slightly stressful watch because it’s only 37 minutes long but rife with constant narration and dialogues. Furthermore, the actors speak at a pace that makes it feel as though you’re watching the film at double speed, necessitating keen attention to catch everything. Relax your focus, and you might miss something – or at least, that’s how I felt, as I remained exceptionally alert throughout the entire runtime.
The short film revolves around the transformation of a self-indulgent wealthy man’s life after he reads a peculiar book by an Indian doctor, Z.Z. Chatterjee (Dev Patel), about a man named Imdad Khan (Ben Kingsley), who could see without his eyes. The film begins with Ralph Fiennes portraying Roald Dahl, introducing viewers to the protagonist, Henry Sugar (Benedict Cumberbatch), a man who led an unusual life. Fiennes’ introduction of Henry’s personality closely mirrors Dahl’s original description.
Henry Sugar was forty-nine year old and unmarried. He was also wealthy. He was wealthy because he had a rich father, who was now dead. He was unmarried because he was too selfish to share any of his money with a wife. He was six feet two inches tall, but he wasn’t really as good-looking as he thought he was.
Roald Dahl’s description of Henry Sugar
In fact, most of the film script is exactly as it appears in the original short story, with the exception that not everything made it into this whimsical Wes Anderson live-action adaptation. To enhance the comical effect, the characters perform as if they are in a stage play, complete with speech tags and self-narrations. For instance, after Dahl starts describing a rainy day that altered Henry’s life, then Henry himself takes over the narration, saying, ‘Henry wandered out of the drawing room and into the front hall. He drifted through the house, aimless. Then finally mooched into the library”.
All the actors portray multiple characters and deliver their lines with a deadpan style, contributing to the overall absurdity. It took me a moment to recognize Ben Kingsley as Imdad Khan, and he does pass off as an Indian man from Kashmir, except for his distinctly British manner of speaking. Which leads me to an important feature of this film: none of the actors portraying Indian characters resort to caricatured fake Indian accents. Brownie points for that.
The cinematography is a mix of intricate stage decorations, stop-motion animation and farcical retro recreations of a bygone era. Many scenes in “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” are designed to resemble a colorful 3D pop-up book for children, where the scenes change as you turn the pages. Wes Anderson incorporates numerous intentional elements into the screenplay designed to elicit laughter from the audience. For instance, when Henry is driving a car, there’s a screen behind him displaying a moving road, while he is seated in a stationary car. This clever use of visuals makes you feel like you are watching a movie before the special effects were added in. However, the Imdad Khan section felt underwhelming, despite being the most magical part of the story. Rather than showing viewers the circus where Imdad performs his ‘blind’ tricks, Wes Anderson has the doctor describe everything, which was disappointing.
While “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” is a faithful adaptation of Roald Dahl’s story, with a fantastic cast of actors, you can’t help but feel like something is missing. Perhaps 37 minutes weren’t enough, regardless, it’s an amusing watch for Wes Anderson fans.
You can stream the film on Netflix.
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