Wes Anderson's Roald Dahl shorts

 

DIRECTED BY:
Wes Anderson
STARRING:
Benedict Cumberbatch
Ben Kingsley
Ralph Fiennes
Rupert Friend
Dev Patel
Richard Ayoade
YEAR OF RELEASE:
2023

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS.

In order to prevent this review from feeling repetitive, I will first mention the positives that were common in all of the shorts, and then get into the specific criticisms/praises when I review them individually: 

• The performances by everyone in the cast were incredible.

• The dialogues (which were 99% narration) were crisp, witty, and immensely descriptive. They provided interesting flavors and personalities to the significant details shown on screen, further making the viewing experience feel like reading a book rather than watching a film. 

• The gorgeous, cozy, and dynamic set designs, Wes Anderson’s signature style of visually pleasing, symmetrical, and colorful cinematography and costumes, and great attention to detail in the sound design and music, all contributed excellently in bringing Roald Dahl’s peculiar, vibrant short stories to life. 

Now, allow me to briefly articulate my thoughts on the shorts one by one, in the order of my least to most favorite of the four: 

THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR

PREMISE: A rich man learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes. He sets out to master the skill in order to cheat at gambling.

Although this short has a sweet and heartwarming character arc — that of a selfish, greedy man who ultimately dedicates his life to a noble, selfless cause after experiencing a spiritual awakening in the pursuit of wealth, the overall film unfortunately felt crammed and rushed, especially during the development of said character arc. Because this essentially has a short story within the main short story, it felt like the titular character was sidelined for most of the runtime, causing us to not feel too attached or connected with him, which further prevented the end of his journey from feeling as emotionally impactful as one would hope. The film would’ve definitely improved if the audience was allowed to sit with Henry a bit longer and really soak in his personal growth. Don’t get me wrong, the mini short story about how Imdad Khan acquired his powers was in no way dull or uninteresting, but I personally felt that it didn’t quite mesh together with the larger story being told about Henry Sugar.

Overall, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar neither has whacky characters like The Rat Catcher, nor the strong emotional impact of The Swan, nor the gripping tension and hilarious situational comedy of Poison. All it has to offer (besides the common positives I mentioned earlier) is an intriguing origin story of a psychic power and a pleasant character arc — which makes it a decent short film but also easily the weakest of the four.

RATING: 6/10

THE RAT CATCHER

PREMISE: In an English village, a reporter and a mechanic listen to a rat catcher explain his clever plan to outwit his prey.

I don’t have a lot to say about this short as it itself doesn’t try to achieve a lot. It takes place in a small English village with the titular Rat Catcher — a wildly peculiar, experienced, prideful, meticulous, and obsessive rat hunter — as the central focus. 

The ways in which this mysterious man’s disgusting eccentricities are gradually revealed, and the line between him and the creature he’s hunting is blurred, makes for a deeply unsettling yet entertaining watch. Ralph Fiennes does a fantastic job at balancing the comedic and horrifying tones of the character. 

I also appreciated the brilliant incorporation of stop-motion animation near the end of the film.

However, what the short suffers from is its lack of emotional depth and its underdeveloped side characters — who are given very little personality. As a result, there isn’t much of a contrasting character dynamic  for Fiennes’ character to bounce off of, causing the flow of the story to feel kind of one-note. 

As it stands, I found The Rat Catcher  to be just an unsettling yet comedic and entertaining story about an extremely unusual man, told decently well, nothing more and nothing less.

RATING: 6/10

THE SWAN

PREMISE: A small brilliant boy is tormented by two large idiotic bullies.

This is easily the darkest and most heartbreaking of the shorts, and it’s not even close. Rupert Friend was amazing at portraying his character and narrating the story. His voice modulations and subtle expressions depicting anger and horror, while trying to maintain the role of a monotonic narrator was all done really well. It is due to his extremely effective performance that we are able to always feel the looming, ominous presence of the bullies without ever actually seeing them. 

Although the story of the The Swan is a pretty bleak and depressing one, in the end, I appreciated that the film incorporated some inspiring themes of resilience and standing your ground no matter how big or strong your bullies are. The metaphors with the swan bird itself were well realized, and the whole railway track sequence had me glued to the screen and holding my breath. 

This short undoubtedly had the strongest emotional core and was the “heaviest” of the four. It also had a very emotionally impactful ending that almost brought me to my tears.

IF I had to criticize it though, while watching the film at one point it did feel like the story was filled with just too much torment and misery. I mean, the character of Peter Watson just does not catch a break from start to end, and although I understand that that IS kind of the point of the story, I feel like this aspect of the film would definitely make me hesitant to ever rewatch it. 

RATING: 7/10

POISON

PREMISE: When a poisonous snake slithers onto an Englishman's stomach in India, his associate and a doctor race to save him.

Of all the shorts, Poison in my opinion strikes the best balance between building tension, delivering comedy, and extracting drama while (for the most part) subtly tackling of the theme of racism. It incorporates one of the oldest tricks in the book to instantly hook the audience — a ticking time bomb, or in this case, a supposedly deadly snake sleeping on top of a man that could bite him at any moment.

Everything in this film — from Dev Patel’s anxious and concerned narration, Benedict Cumberbatch’s expressions of restrained annoyance and frustration, to Ben Kingsley’s gradually growing disdain for his patient — works together in great harmony to deliver a very humorous, fast-paced, suspense-filled story with some pretty surprising twists and revelations. 

The metaphor with the title also works decently well — the venomous poison of bigotry is perhaps the strongest of all, rendering its victim a rage-filled, crippled and helpless creature, unable to move forward with the world. 

And, unlike The Swan which I would probably never rewatch because of how devastating it was, I can definitely see myself rewatching Poison to revisit some of its funniest moments.

All of this makes it my personal favorite of the four short films.

RATING: 7/10