In The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Henry Sugar, a wealthy man, dedicates himself to attaining an extraordinary skill that will help him cheat at gambling. The movie is now streaming on Netflix.
Story
Henry Sugar is a 41-year-old, unmarried, and rich man who has inherited all of his wealth from his dead father. Henry hasn’t married anyone because he is too selfish to share his wealth with his wife.
Rich people like Henry crave to increase their fortunes, and in order to do so, they indulge in various activities like investing in stocks and shares, buying land or art, or trying their luck at gambling.
Henry also seeks to get richer and doesn’t back away from cheating. Henry soon comes across a book by Dr. Z.Z. Chatterjee from Calcutta about Imdad Khan, a man who can see without his eyes.
Dr. Chatterjee’s book and Imdad’s extraordinary skill fascinate Henry Sugar, who, for the first time in his life, genuinely spends time and works hard to attain the skill mentioned in the book.
Henry plans to learn this with the motive of making more money, but this experience might change him as a person forever.
Performances
The cast of The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar seems to be having fun with the characters that they are playing, the sets they are in, and the dialogues they are given. None of the actors lose themselves whenever they break the fourth wall or crack unexpected jokes.
Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, and Ben Kingsley equally stand out and compliment the time they are given to showcase their skills.
Positives
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar finds the quickest and most fun way to tell its simple story in under 40 minutes. The shorter duration actually makes this film work, despite there being two stories inside it. A feature-length may have hurt the film and would have made it rather sluggish.
Roald Dahl, played by Ralph Fiennes, kicking off the story with the exact words from its source material will give the fans of Dahl’s work a goosebump moment.
The film works as a play, with the creators using the most basic but colorful set pieces and techniques that one will only see in plays. It is also bold about using silly tricks. More or less, the film is just narration with visuals that go quite well with it.
Negatives
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar suffers from overstuffed and fast-paced dialogues that can be hard to keep up with. Sometimes, too much information is fed in a single breath.
Verdict
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar should be looked at as a majorly silly watch with a beautiful message. The A-list actors are going to rope in many fans, who will have to get comfortable with this fun attempt to tell this story.
Also Read: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar summary and ending explained