Capsule Review: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)

“Wonderful, indeed“, I (this writer) said. I must say Wes Anderson sure has a field day breaking the fourth wall from beginning to end in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. The new movie — wait — short film marks the writer-director’s first Netflix original that runs only 37 minutes long. And not to mention, his second Roald Dahl adaptation after the impressive stop-motion animated feature, Fantastic Mr Fox back in 2009.

Based on Dahl’s 1977 short story of the same name, Anderson wastes no time setting the story from the get-go as Ralph Fiennes, who plays Roald Dahl, narrates the story in his writing hut. From there, his story takes us to Dr Chatterjee (Dev Patel), who marvels at Imdad Khan’s (Ben Kingsley) extraordinary gift of seeing things without using his eyes.

Like the Matryoshka doll that reveals one doll after another, we soon learn from Khan’s point of view and his fascinating history before we get to Henry Sugar played by Benedict Cumberbatch.

It’s amazing how Anderson manages to tell a dense story within the confines of a short film. It’s a talky film that requires our attention as each actor tells his respective story in front of the camera as the scene unfolds in different theatre-like settings. The latter even has a stagehand literally appear on the screen as he moves or changes the props. If that’s not enough, Anderson pokes fun at how his characters speak, complete with dialogue tags (e.g. “I said”) included.

No doubt The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar has all the hallmarks — well, almost — of a quintessential Wes Anderson film: the boxy 1:33:1 Academy ratio, striking pastel-colour palettes and the symmetrical visual compositions. Each frame between the character, the foreground and the background is like an art itself. Other technical credits are equally top-notch, notably Robert Yeoman’s vibrant cinematography and Adam Stockhausen’s gorgeous production design.

The story is constantly witty and hilariously deadpan, where the latter particularly rings true with the introduction of Ben Kingsley’s Imdad Khan in the hospital earlier in the film. Kingsley steals most of the show here but that doesn’t mean the rest of the cast pales in comparison. Benedict Cumberbatch’s dry-witted performance as Henry Sugar is spot-on and so do Ralph Fiennes and Dev Patel.

The downside? The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar feels like business as usual for Wes Anderson, who doesn’t really break new grounds here in his filmmaking style. The incredibly swift narrative approach might be a turn-off for some viewers. But whatever it is, it’s hard to deny the sheer whimsical fun that Anderson offers here.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is reportedly the first of a planned four-part series of shorts with the other three including The Swan, The Ratcatcher and Poison.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is currently streaming on Netflix.