This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
If you hadn’t heard, Wes Anderson was releasing 5 films in the year 2023. One being the much more advertised Asteroid City, a largely stylistic film that shows Anderson’s iconic style in full form. The second was his series of short stories The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, which dropped rather quietly on Netflix as part of a series of short films to be released over the course of four days – from September 27-30, 2023. We will be reviewing all 4 films, starting with Henry Sugar and following it up with The Swan, The Rat Catcher and Poison, all four of which are adaptations of classic Roald Dahl works.
This is not the first time that Anderson has adapted one of Dahl’s works either. He did so famously with The Fantastic Mr. Fox in 2009. It seems, though, that this pairing is a match made in heaven, as Dahl’s eccentric and colorful writing style and themes seems to match Anderson’s own. What’s interesting this time around is that the acclaimed filmmaker has decided to, almost word for word, adapt the original stories, including Dahl’s own descriptions that he included.
This was accomplished by making the film act as a stage play, with actors monologuing their “thoughts”, as if to an audience, exactly as was written on the page and with the sets moving in and out and “practical” effects (like sitting on a box painted to match the background to act as if one was floating) that you’d see on stage. Only here it’s made for film. It’s a really creative and innovative idea that I think really captures the essence of the stories extraordinarily well. It’s also something that isn’t foreign to Anderson’s own work. He did something similar in Asteroid City. Yet, it worked much better here than in that film.
As is usual in Wes Anderson films, we also see quite the star-studded cast in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel and Ben Kingsley lead the way here, each playing small supporting roles in addition to their own major roles, again emulating the stage play genre. I did really enjoy seeing each of them in the film. Yet, I just couldn’t wrap my head around Anderson’s direction of these actors. It just felt as if there wasn’t a ton of life to them, which has become par for the course in the director’s films lately. The emotionless and stiff acting that feels so much like a stylistic choice that really doesn’t need to be there at all.
That said, I loved the set design and the flow of the story felt natural and pleasant. It was a wise choice to not adapt the story into a feature length, something Anderson spent the better part of two decades grappling with. The short runtime helped the film pace along merrily and I was happy to follow along.
Final Thoughts
It’s a really cool idea to adapt a short story directly into a film, word for word, and have it act as a stage play on screen. Not to mention, incredibly unique. I believe The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is something that only Wes Anderson could pull together, but I am glad he did. If only it weren’t for his choice in emotional expression for his actors, this might have been one of the best short films of the last few years.
