Wes Anderson’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” is about a rich man, whom the short film is named after, who learns of a circus performer who could see without his eyes from a book he found. Intrigued, he sets out to learn this skill in order to cheat in card gambling.

However, the presence of Anderson’s contemporary art style; a keen eye for color gradients; makes itself known to the audience from the first shot. The appealing nature of the complimentary colors creates a subtle experience for a spiritual movie.

While others may appreciate Anderson’s attention to detail, I personally find it convoluting. Anderson’s unique writing style doesn’t meet the expectations you’d have seeing the caliber of the performers involved and the $20 million budget.

This film attempts to experiment with a bold narrative device. Like a play, the actors are staring at the camera and narrating to the audience – which I think didn’t serve this movie the justice it deserves, rather it leads to a prolonged and repetitive experience.

It was only 39 minutes, but with the underwhelming overediting, I felt like I was watching “Avatar” minus the grandiose action scenes and CGI.

This film’s background was clearly a green screen in some scenes and they didn’t even hide that fact. In other scenes, there were just big cardboard walls that quite literally showed the backstage crew moving away from the big cardboard walls to flip through scenes.

The only redeeming feature this movie has is its unique “read-aloud” idea and even then they completely trashed that, it’s essentially just a repetitive play with a green screen behind it.

Even though the CGI and the acting are horrible, the story in itself isn’t bad. The whole idea of a “Man who can see through bandages” is quite an interesting trait that you don’t see much. The story itself could have been more interesting 

I wouldn’t wish my worst enemy to watch this 39-minute snooze fest. I have seen some horrible movies. The fact Anderson tries to turn this clearly embellished story into Non-fiction takes the immersion away from the viewer and leads to an unfulfilling watch, breaks the immersion, and makes me feel less welcome as a viewer. If you want a story that executes the themes of this film better and in a more entertaining way, watch “It’s A Wonderful Day In The Neighborhood” instead. The attention to detail by Anderson is most certainly admirable, but not my cup of tea. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is a 2/10, a pretentious and insipid watch.