The sun-splashed Venice film festival provided an unlikely backdrop for the premiere of Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, an enjoyable bedtime story of sorts, converted from the 1976 tale by Roald Dahl. The guests sheltered from the heat inside the main cinema while the director moseyed on stage with a diffident shrug. What followed was a cosy, wholesome, purely soothing affair. The only thing missing was a cup of warm cocoa.
“I hope that you like it. And if you don’t that’s OK, because it’s very short,” Anderson explained by way of introduction, setting the scene for a droll 40-minute featurette that will duly be heading over to Netflix within the space of a month. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar marks the director’s second adaptation of Dahl, after his animated take on Fantastic Mr Fox, and recounts the fortunes of a wealthy gambler (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) who masters the ability to read the reverse sides of playing cards. Armed with this superpower, Sugar sets out to fleece his favourite London casino … only to awake the next morning feeling more morally bankrupt than ever.
