Four middle-aged teachers put into practice the theory that maintaining a
constant level of alcohol in your blood leads to a more enlightened state
of being.
Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Thomas Vinterberg
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, Lars
Ranthe, Maria Bonnevie
If chicken soup is Jewish penicillin, alcohol is Northern European
paracetamol. As much as the governments of our windswept nations may
attempt to discourage us, alcohol is an essential part of our culture.
It helps make our awful winters a little more bearable and it allows us
to express ourselves emotionally in a way we simply can't while sober.
Is this a failing of the Northern European mentality? Sure, but we're
stuck with it. Unlike our Mediterranean and American cousins, we're a
stoic lot, and it often takes a degree of alcohol for us to embrace
life. I recall as a child waiting up for my parents to arrive back from
a night out, as with a few drinks on them they were at their most fun,
and many of my fondest memories are blurred because I was off my tits at
the time. Of course, alcohol destroys a lot of lives, but on the
aggregate it does more good than harm. Getting wasted is a lot of fun.
That's an unpopular statement nowadays, but as much as we deny our
Northern European nature, it holds true. We're not Southern Europeans,
who can spend six hours around a dinner table and engage in deep
conversations while stone cold sober. We need to be rat-arsed to feel
comfortable broaching certain topics and expressing uncomfortable
emotions. It's who we are, and the sooner we admit it to ourselves and
stop pretending we can magically morph from a pub culture into a café
culture, the happier we'll all be.
It's hard to think of a movie that's pro-alcohol. Certainly English
language cinema has always adopted a puritanical attitude to drinking.
The closest I can think of to a film that argues the case for alcohol as
medicine for the soul is Marco Ferreri's 1981 Charles Bukowski
adaptation Tales of Ordinary Madness, in which Ben Gazzara'a alcohol consumption sets him apart from the
stuffy sobriety of American society. Thomas Vinterberg's
Another Round owes a debt to
Tales of Ordinary Madness and another Ferreri film, 1973's
La Grande Bouffe, in which four men retreat to a country manor with a plan to eat
themselves to death.
Vinterberg similarly gathers a quartet of despondent middle-aged male
protagonists, four school teachers going through the motions in both
their professional and home lives. Over a dinner thrown in honour of one
of their number turning 40 - that round number that makes so many of us
reflect on what a waste of oxygen our lives have been - the conversation
turns to Norwegian philosopher Finn Skarderud and his theory that
maintaining a certain blood-alcohol content level is essential to living
an enlightened life. The men decide to put Skarderud's theory into
practice, agreeing to remain tipsy throughout the work day, but not to
drink past 8pm or at weekends.
Initially, this yields largely positive results. History teacher Martin
(Mads Mikkelsen) finds a new spark in his troubled marriage and
begins to connect with his pupils in a way he never could before (a
clever scene has him con the kids into admitting they would vote for
Hitler if they chose political candidates based on superficial ideas
like behaviour and politeness). PE teacher Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen) is able to open up to the young members of his football team with an
honesty he previously kept repressed, inspiring them to winning ways.
Peter (Lars Ranthe) helps a troubled pupil who obsesses over
failing his exams by encouraging him to have a couple of shots of vodka
to steady his nerves before taking an exam, which works wonders for the
boy. Nikolaj (Magnus Milling), who proposed the experiment, is
driven to document and further tweak the ongoing project.
When absinthe is introduced and the men are encouraged to take things
to the level of "total oblivion", it's no surprise when things come
crashing down around them as they are simply too wrecked to carry out
their daily tasks. But this isn't a case of simply pouring scorn on the
idea of drinking. If there's a moral here it's that a little alcohol can
help you come out of your shell, a social lubricant if you will, so long
as you don’t become dependant. When NASA proponents are asked why so
much money should be spent on trying to reach Mars when we have so many
problems on our own planet that need taking care of, they usually tell
us that we may never reach Mars but that the knowledge we acquire in our
pursuit of such a distant goal can be put to use here on Earth.
Something similar happens with Martin and co here. In aiming for total
oblivion they find a level on the path that does indeed improve their
lives, even if they have to keep their drinking a secret from those
around them.
Just as getting hammered is a lot of fun, so too is watching others get
destroyed, and for the most part, Another Round is a
joyous experience. Apparently the cast were required to actually get
drunk while filming, which lends a verisimilitude to their onscreen
behaviour. There are a couple of drink-fuelled dance sequences that are
simply filled with a love of life. At time of writing, all the pubs and
nightclubs in my country are closed due to COVID-19, which made viewing
Another Round feel like a nostalgic glimpse into a past
that may never completely return. If that's the case, Vinterberg's film
is a warm, feelgood document of the life we once enjoyed, even if we
felt guilty about relying on alcohol to fully embrace it.
Another Round is on Netflix
UK/ROI now.