This tale is different, building to a happy ending - one complicated by Dahl’s assertion that, “had this been a made-up story instead of a true one, it would have been necessary to invent” a more poetic outcome. How he arrives at this enlightenment and where he goes from there should surprise even Dahl’s fans (those who don’t know this story, at least), since the writer was frequently accused of putting his characters through all kinds of suffering. At one point, the seemingly incessant narration actually falls silent, as Henry Sugar stands on his balcony and tosses a bundle of money into the street, one £20 note at a time. For the sake of this review, it’s the director’s way of interpreting Dahl that proves most interesting, as he asks the project’s relatively small (but starry) cast to skip from England to India, and later all around the world, while rolling rudimentary screens on and off stage around them. ![]() Now four levels deep, Dahl’s “Wonderful Story” is starting to feel like “The Saragossa Manuscript,” that great matryoshka-esque puzzle, with its intricate structure of stories within stories.Īnderson permits himself to make a few improvements along the way, one of which calls for Cumberbatch (as Sugar) to become a corny master of disguise. Eager to discover how Kahn managed to master this technique, Chatterjee interrogates Kahn, who next assumes narrator duties. A perfect addition to Anderson’s ever-expanding company of actors, Kingsley plays Kahn, a yoga-trained street magician who demonstrates his unique skill to a pair of skeptical doctors (Ayoade plays the other one). Chatterjee (Patel, also appearing in dual roles), reading his own report. No sooner has he opened the book than the voiceover shifts to one Dr. Dahl introduces Henry Sugar (Cumberbatch), a rich and idle bachelor interested primarily in increasingly his fortune, who stumbles upon a strange book entitled “A Report on Imdad Kahn: The Man Who Sees Without Using His Eyes” in his library. What follows are not Dahl’s actual words but Anderson’s faithful-in-spirit take on them, which calls for wall-to-wall voiceover as various characters pass the baton of telling the story. 'Aggro Dr1ft' Review: Harmony Korine Plays With Our Heads in Hard Reset on Filmmaking RulesĪfter Fiennes-as-Dahl (in a stylized version of his writing shed at Gipsy House, where Anderson resided for a time) briefly describes his writing process, he gets up from his chair, steps out his front door and begins to recite the titular short story. Roman Polanski Fails to Stir Up Venice Buzz as 'The Palace' Premieres to Meager Applause Twerking, Satan and Travis Scott: Harmony Korine's 'Aggro Dr1ft' Earns 10-Minute Standing Ovation at Venice, Despite Walkouts For whatever reason, Anderson’s conceit is that the entire project is taking place in an old-timey movie studio, with rear projection, forced perspective and other devices employed for our amusement. With a sly meta-textual wink, Anderson acknowledges the artificiality of it all, drawing attention to the stage tricks used to jump between locations. Later, we’ll realize that the movie knows this is an actor appearing as Dahl, since Fiennes also fills a second role as a London bobby. “Henry Sugar” lands soon after “Asteroid City” and repeats that movie’s dizzyingly Brechtian nested-narrative approach, beginning at what appears to be the outermost layer, with Ralph Fiennes playing the author himself. Instead of being a one-off, it’s just the start of a larger project, with three more Anderson-crafted Dahl adaptations - “The Swan,” “The Ratcatcher” and “Poison” - coming to Netflix in late September. ![]() At that tight running time, it’s dauntingly dense, but also ready to compete in the Oscar short category, where it would be better than every winner since Martin McDonagh’s “Six Shooter” way back in 2006. ![]() ![]() Fox” director’s hands: a fanciful 40-minute short featuring a slew of new collaborators (Ben Kingsley, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Richard Ayoade) in the helmer’s traditional head-on diorama style. Fox” author’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” seems to have found its ideal screen incarnation in the “Fantastic Mr. It’s hard to say whether Wes Anderson’s sensibility is perfectly suited to that of Roald Dahl or the other way around.
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