ANOTHER ROUND Review
The relationship between alcohol and mankind has always been a little complicated. Caught between that energetic burst of “liquid courage” it can offer and the sloppy, unabashed embarrassment it usually serves, a person’s relationship to alcohol can range from love to hate to even obsession and addiction. It’s a constant uneasy relationship that varies from continent to continent, country to country, and family to family that director/writer Thomas Vinterberg brings to life in his bittersweet ode to companionship nurtured and battered by booze.
Set in the beautiful country of Denmark, where the national drinking age is 18 and the idea of casual consumption of alcohol is a rather abundant one among those who can legally participate. As we see in a beautifully captured yoth ritual in the film’s intro, where teenagers try to chug down a six pack while running around a giant pond without barfing, Vinterberg immediately establishes that glorious spell of casual drinking; an urge that soon transfers over to four middle aged protagonists. There is family man and history teacher, Martin (Mads Mikkelsen); gruff divorcee and pee-wee soccer coach, Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen); the newly turned family man and arts teacher, Nikolaj (Magnus Millang); and finally, lonely bachelor and theory teacher, Peter (Lars Ranthe). Each caught in their own mid-life crisis, it’s not long before the four, whether due to boredom or some need for a kind of zest in their slowly plateauing lives (probably both), embark on a “social experiment” that has each man day drinking to a certain BAC level of 0.05%, a level that apparently every adult should aspire to achieve in their everyday lives as experiment creator Nikolaj posits it will “enhance their social and professional lives”.
In any other universe, that plot line would probably make the likes of Adam Sandler and his compatriots foam at the mouth at the thought of turning the idea of four middle aged dudes getting day drunk into a slapstick comedy; but in the hands of a more restrained filmmaker like Vinterberg the story of four middle aged dudes getting drunk during the day becomes a rather sweet and reality-based picture regarding the themes of aging and the responsibilities that come with it, and of course the highs and lows that come with day drinking. Make no mistake, there is humor to be found in ANOTHER ROUND, which definitely has its fun when depicting our four “heroes” getting day drunk and slurring and sloshing around at school and at home, which Vinterberg devilishly displays in scenes that are simultaneously funny and tension-filled. Thanks to Sturla Brandth Grovlen’s intentionally unsteady cinematography, which teeters the four men’s lives between bubbly joy and slurred shame in the midst of the natural beauty and colors of their home country, ANOTHER ROUND is constantly toeing the line between comedy and drama, moreso eventually turning towards the latter as Vinterberg, who co-wrote the script with Tobias Lindholm, is keen to note the dangers of an experiment that deals with loose consumption of alcohol. Between classical music needle drops and stylish moments where the four scientists document their findings over a black screen filled with white texts dictating their findings, Vinterberg adds more artistic flourishes here compared to his previous (and more serious) film, THE HUNT.
For the most part, these tonal shifts are adequately pulled off by the filmmaker, thanks in large part to his enjoyable cast of middle aged men. While Martin gets the most depth out of all the other characters, going through an at times wrenching relationship crisis with his drifting wife (Marie Bonnevie, also good) as he slowly loses himself to the experiments, the other characters and their performers bring the necessary human element to their roles, casting the four men’s relationship in a genuine and sweet light. As the film moves on, each man slowly and naturally reveals his own personal reason for casually taking to the drink, which of course ranges from a simple lack of zest in their current life to something much deeper and lonelier. The four central performers each work off one other well, offering a friendship that emits genuine care for one another through actions and glances and hugs and screams of joy moreso than explicit dialogue. Indeed, the best scenes in ANOTHER ROUND are in those moments where the drinks flow and the four friends have a blast making fools of themselves. In those moments, Vinterberg brilliantly offers the outward appearance of absolute drunken joy while still leaving room for that specter of concern that arises when seeing grown men make fools of themselves in public. Mikkelsen, with the meatier character, once more shows why he’s a reliable actor, adequately switching from a lost and frazzled man to one happily dancing in a drunken stupor that rings with happiness and sadness. Special kudos as well to Mr. Bo Larsen who portrays the gruff Tommy with a winning mixture of aged attitude and somber world weariness.
While the story can seem to meander as much as the characters do when they get drunk, Vinterberg is always grasping for something interesting in each scene. Whether that means addressing the tried and true tale of finally figuring out what life is all about or looking at the complicated relationship between Denmark (humorously encapsulated by a montage of actual politicians showing up to events hammered) and casual alcohol consumption, ANOTHER ROUND isn’t lacking in interesting conversation starters. Even so, each of these various threads sometimes tangle over one another, one losing its meaning when compared to another. This, whether intentional or not, adds an air of uncertainty to the film’s final third which quickly threatens to derail into somberness only to come back and dance the sadness away in the film’s most intriguing scene, both thematically and visually. A film that is marked by personal tragedy for the filmmaker, who lost his daughter during filming (and for which the film is dedicated towards), it’d be hard to blame Vinterberg for not turning his tale away from tragedy towards a more hopeful horizon. The result is tad uneven but still intriguing, leaving the viewer with questions about the film’s true stance towards man and alcohol.
ANOTHER ROUND isn’t a knockout from the director who delivered impeccable creeping dread with THE HUNT (also starring Mr. Mikkelsen) but it’s also obviously not that kind of movie. For a moment, like his characters, this film offers a moment of interesting and entertaining joy for Vinterberg, even in the face of a life that can be cruel and unforgiving.
3.5/5
