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Review of the film The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar: A sweet bedtime tale from Wes Anderson

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is an interseting bedtimetale. This tale is marvelous piece from Wes Anderson.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, a new Netflix documentary from Wes Anderson, is 39 minutes long—the length of a cup of hot cocoa after a long day at the office. Or the warmth of a cozy blanket on a chilly, rainy evening.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar Details:

The movie tells the remarkable story of Henry Sugar (Benedict Cumberbatch), a wealthy man who, after years of practice, has the ability to read a deck of cards face down. It is a direct text-to-screen translation of Roald Dahl’s well-known 1976 short story.

The miraculous tale of Imdad Khan (Ben Kingsley), a guy who could see without eyes, that Sugar (a hopeless gambler) stumbled upon in a book authored by Dr. ZZ Chatterjee (Dev Patel), makes him realize that if he also learns the skill, he could win large in casinos all over the world. And he complies. only to see the pointlessness of pursuing wealth and learn how to direct all the power it entails toward something worthwhile.

The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival about a month ago and was written and directed by Anderson. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is Anderson’s second adaptation of Dahl’s work, following 2009’s stop-motion animated comedy Fantastic Mr. Fox, which starred George Clooney, Bill Murray, Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson, and Willem Dafoe. This time, Anderson has stayed as true to Dahl’s original text as possible, giving the impression that you are reading a book rather than watching a movie.

This delightful short is true to Anderson’s iconic live-action filmmaking style, with its continuously shifting stage sets and characters that speak more quickly to the audience than to one another. They linger more outside the scene than inside it, giving every circumstance a peculiar out-of-body perspective and enabling it to be seen through the impartial, philosophical lens that can only be created when the fourth wall is shattered properly. And Anderson, a true master craftsman, performs everything to the highest standard. Our Indian filmmakers, who are working so hard to produce dull remakes of Fleabag, could perhaps take a few notes.

The color scheme used by director of photography Robert Yeoman is deliciously Wes Anderson-like. many pastels. How can the OG abandon his signature style when the world is being transformed into a Wes Anderson movie by millions of Instagram users who are participating in the viral trend and sharing a day in their life as seen through rose-colored glasses?

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar adheres to the traditional Anderson model. It is whimsical, amazing, and wholly enjoyable. All the male actors play two roles, despite the fact that there are no women in this drama. A standing ovation is in order for Ralph Fiennes, who is outstanding as Dahl, the narrator, as well as the officer who exposes Sugar’s conceit and stops him in his tracks.

The moving set pieces designed meticulously to the minutest detail, the quick-talking characters, and the textbooky dialogue (Anderson has retained even the “he said” from the original material) all give the film a sense of urgency, never letting you forget that you’re watching the adaptation of a celebrated novelist.

Unlike Indian filmmakers, who are slowly gaining infamy for peddling half-hearted, uncooked first drafts as short films, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is as earnest and delightful a Wes Anderson film as any. So solid are the performances, so succinct the messaging, so secure the direction, and so strong the love for storytelling, you can almost touch it, taste it, and should absolutely revel in it.

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