The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar movie review: Decadent and delightful, Wes Anderson’s Netflix film is a star-studded masterpiece

Anderson divides the movie into three noticeably separate acts led by three different protagonists, deploying a delightful matryoshka doll structure that is as surprising at his style is familiar. The same bunch of actors play multiple roles, which gives the production a distinct theatricality. Anderson also makes the ingenious choice — perhaps the side-effect of a relatively restrained budget — to make the movie seem like a filmed stage production. For instance, when the camera pans in an early scene, we see an artificial backdrop and lights between the two visible soundstages. Later, as the setting changes from an apartment to a library, stage hands scurry onto the screen to replace the scenery. The entire movie is also presented as a live reading of Dahl’s story, with characters regularly breaking the fourth wall, further cementing the bond between the performer and the audience. It’s delightful.

While the first act is set mainly in an English manor, the second transports the action to 1930s Calcutta, where The Man Who Sees Without Using His Eyes (Ben Kingsley) first approaches Dr ZZ Chatterjee (Dev Patel) and tells him about his unique condition. Imdad Khan developed the ability to see through objects after learning a unique mediation technique from a forest-dwelling yogi. Dr Chatterjee confirmed that Imdad’s claims were, in fact, true, and proceeded to write his story down in his journal, which would be discovered by Henry Sugar decades later.

A greedy man who hasn’t worked a day in his life, Henry Sugar instantly sparks to the financial possibilities of having such a superpower, and dedicates the next three years of his life to mastering it. Once he has also learned the ability of seeing through objects, he decides to hit the hottest casinos around town and take them for all they’re worth. But after winning thousands of pounds on his first night out, Henry Sugar is struck by a bout of conscience, allowing Anderson to unleash the most sincere stretch of cinema that he has ever directed.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, at just 40 minutes long, could be read as his sweeping statement on the state of the film industry (and his position in it). Or is it a biopic of America? His films have always been emotionally distant — the meticulous style doesn’t lend itself to old-fashioned drama — but the deadpan delivery only heightens the sensation when he decides to turn the faucet ever so slightly. In The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, this moment comes when Dr Chatterjee discovers that a person he’d been eager to meet is gone forever.

Patel delivers a truly moving performance, bittersweet despite the brusque manner in which Anderson often proceeds; outstanding in a sea of brilliance. This isn’t exactly a children’s film, despite the delectable tone and eye-popping visuals. There’s genuine heartbreak here — both in theme and execution. Dahl, a proven anti-Semite, would likely have been cancelled if he were alive. He has been spared by the combination of indifference and delayed indignation usually afforded to dead men. But Anderson has found the most subversive way to address this moral conflict. To portray Dahl in a prologue, he has cast Ralph Fiennes, who once played perhaps vilest Nazi ever committed to screen in an American film.

After the uneven pleasures of his two pandemic-era movies — The French Dispatch and Asteroid City —  The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar finds Anderson unleashing the same charm-offensive that made The Grand Budapest Hotel such an unambiguously enjoyable experience. This is his best film in years.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Director – Wes Anderson
Cast – Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, Richard Ayoade, Ralph Fiennes
Rating – 5/5