Poison (2023)

The best of this series of films around Roald Dahl. A tight film, sometimes with a bit of tension and although you can see the punchline coming from afar, this is still quite entertaining to watch. The whole thing about breaking the fourth wall also works fine here. Other than that, nothing very special, but the film is not boring for the entire duration. 3.0*.

Translated from Dutch · View original

After Henry Sugar, the best of those four short stories by Dahl. A nice exciting short that manages to maintain that tension until the end.

A great Cumberbatch too who shows a lot of expression with little expression. Funny and entertaining. The bickering was fun and not boring at all. Wes Anderson makes something of it. Good!

Translated from Dutch · View original

Wes Anderson made four short films that are all based on a story by Roald Dahl. Poison is the second film in that series that I have watched. First I watched the entertaining The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023) and in the meantime also seen The Rat Catcher (2023). The Swan (2023) is still open but will follow soon.

In terms of content, the film adaptations of Dahl's stories are independent of one another. Nevertheless, there is a mutual recognizability. The theatrical staging and the cast are largely similar. For instance, Ralph Fiennes briefly reprises his role as Roald Dahl in Poison. We also see the return of Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Benedict Cumberbatch, who all starred in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.

In Poison, too, Anderson deliberately does not show events. He has the action narrated by one of the actors rather than bringing the action to the screen. While an actor delivers an explanatory monologue or even performs a dialogue, the other characters remain inactive and stand silently in their places. These situations create a sense of alienation and make a dryly humorous impression. An additional advantage of this narrative technique, incidentally, is that it keeps matters delightfully concise, which is, of course, always welcome in a short film.

Poison is definitely an enjoyable short film. Of the three I have seen so far, this film is also the weakest. Visually, the film has less to offer. Beautiful backgrounds, but simply less colorful and creative. And in terms of content, I did not experience the tension and suspense that reading Roald Dahl's story provides in the film. The visual design likely gets in the way of building a narrative arc. The Anderson method works better when humor, mystery, or alienation are involved. In any case, it does not serve the suspense in Poison.

Translated from Dutch · View original