“Another Round” Movie Review
“An eye-opening film with a far weightier subject than its premise implies; Another Round is an existentialist film masked in a plot about day drinking.”
The film follows the lives of four middle-aged men who are much more miserable in their lives than they realize. Teachers at the same high school, they lead relatively stable lives: houses, families, steady work. Too stable, in fact; their students are unchallenged by them, some of their marriages have been lost while others are on the verge of collapse. Their lives have become a mundane, sleepwalking routine they are unaware they are even in. Mads Mikkelsen, (my favorite actor of the moment), plays Martin— a depressed, passionless, history teacher who lacks any remnants of self confidence or drive. Mikkelsen’s aura always gives off an air of greatness and sophistication, which he carries into every role he plays, even into Martin, which is what makes him such an interesting yet tragic and sympathetic character. Often lost in his own thoughts, Martin trudges through his mundane life: lecturing class, having dinner with his family, and attending obligatory birthday dinners. While out at a dinner celebrating his colleague’s 40th birthday, it is there that it is brought to his attention just how unhappy he has become with his own life. He finds himself in unexpected tears he can barely explain. Beautifully, heartbreakingly portrayed by Mikkelsen, the sadness and defeat can easily be interpreted in his eyes and weathered face, but its his pooling tears that almost encourage that of your own. “I don’t know how I ended up like this,” he confesses, almost as if he’s realizing for himself for the first time, just how depressed he truly is, and how normal his numbness has become. He admits he doesn’t see many people anymore, and doesn’t do much of anything anymore either. As his friends try to comfort him, they talk about a past Martin we do not recognize as the broken man we see on screen. We learn as a younger man, Martin was full of potential, bad boy behavior, and intoxicating confidence. He even trained in jazz ballet (as did the actor himself), though he doesn’t do it anymore, much like many of his other passions. Though we do not see their depressive realizations onscreen, we see his friends also struggle with their quickly passing lives. Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen), the gym teacher and soccer coach, is divorced and living alone. Nikolaj (Magnus Millang), the philosophy teacher, married with three young children, is flustered and overwhelmed at the constant, demanding chaos. Peter (Lars Ranthe), the music teacher struggling to find true love and connection. Though they are all struggling with arguably mediocre slumps, the actors portray their characters with a tenderness the audience can’t help but sympathize with. It is also what makes this film that much more recognizable, and therefore impactful. At dinner, Nikolaj shares the theory of psychiatrist Finn Skårderud, that man is born with a .05% alcohol deficiency and that to function at a more productive level, you should regularly consume alcohol throughout the day. They embark on an experiment to test the theory, to see if drinking daily will pull them out of their slumps. It’s a transparent excuse to drink, and for a minute it seems to work. Initially, the audience sees the effects of the experiment as positive, and you let yourself contemplate the legitimacy of the theory as you see Mikkelsen give his typically stiff character, a little more movement after throwing back a few. In those early dabblings with drinking, you can see that self-medicating with a few morning vodka-sodas really does help get Martin out of his own head. He’s more engaged and energetic with his students, their passion for learning revived. On the nights out with the guys, he’s laughing and skipping while roughhousing through the streets with his friends— all caution and self-consciousness gone. It’s infectious, and nostalgic of good times with friends. His newfound light-footed walk in life makes the idea of a jazz ballet background seem a little less far-fetched. However as the men delve deeper into their experiment, the audience starts to feel the very thin line in which the men begin to toe. Another Round does not dance around the obvious toxicity of what its characters are partaking in, though it refuses to condemn alcohol either. As the audience we are able to see the experiment for what it really is: a cover for the pain they’re feeling. While drinking to mask the pain brought remedy to certain aspects of their lives, it also brought its own additional set of problems. It’s not a lifestyle they can maintain, and eventually it starts destroying its participants’ lives one by one.
In a review for Vox, Alissa Wilkinson perfectly captures the true purpose of the film: “Another Round is more interested in the people who drink than the drinking itself, preferring to love its subjects rather than praise or punish their choices.” Director Vinterberg portrays the heavy subject lightheartedly, a rewrite made to be more “life-affirming” after his daughter Ida, who convinced him to make the film, was tragically killed in a car accident four days into filming. Wilkinson continues: “Another Round’s premise seems certain to become a farce or a maudlin tragedy or a too-slick morality tale, but it never does. Instead of teetering on the brink of preachiness… it explores the exhilaration of a low buzz, of concocting a ridiculous plan with your friends and then embarking on that plan even though you’re too old for these shenanigans. It digs into the reasons why adults do things they can’t even really explain to themselves — some combination of finding courage in unlikely places and needing to compensate for all the ways they feel they’ve failed themselves.” Allison Willmore for NY Mag states “Another Round is, indisputably, a midlife-crisis movie, but Vinterberg leans into the melancholy aspects of feeling that the most exciting time in your life is behind you.”
While alcohol has been known to knock people down, it is also known to help pick you up. The way a little buzz frees your mind from the restraints of anxiety and insecurity, allows us to be a little more carefree. A little bit friendlier and more outgoing. Maybe adds a little more pep to your step, or maybe frees you to a full on dance. In this joyous high we can laugh and be silly. We can be more adventurous, and daring. Especially in the comfortable surroundings of friends and loved ones, we enjoy everything just a little bit more. We drink to feel emotions with a little more intensity. When you’re happy, everything tends to be a little funnier. That carefree state we find ourselves in allows us to partake in the joys of life a little more excitably. However, it also can lead to very dark places. It can become a crutch in which some never learn to live without.
Wilkinson finishes: “By the end, Another Round is a truly wonderful movie about trying to come to grips with life, anchored by terrific performances, infectious music, and a real understanding of the humming discontentment that all adults must learn to navigate in their own ways. It’s the sort of comedy fused with tragedy that may just best represent what life really is: a melancholy, glorious, slightly off-kilter dance.”
***SPOILERS BELOW PHOTO!!***
SPOILERS!!!
This next review contains spoilers, but I found it too emotional not to share!
The final scene is the reason I was so drawn to the film to begin with. However, after watching the film in its entirety, the metaphor of the final dance was that much more powerful, impactful, and exhilarating— I couldn’t help but dance along :)
https://www.vulture.com/article/another-round-ending-the-mads-mikkelsen-moment-of-2020.html
“Vinterberg's film was so brilliant and invigorating because of its honesty about friendship, and the hard-hitting nature of time… ‘Another Round’ was the breakdown and reconstruction of a man who thought life had passed him by. [The final dance] was a cathartic moment for a man who was only torturing himself by refusing to be wild and free… ready to live again.”
“It’s in the aftermath of Tommy’s death that Another Round reaches its high point. Once Martin, Nikolaj, and Peter have gathered to toast their late friend and then have a run-in with their students, who are out celebrating their graduation. There, the remaining trio take a break from mourning to bask secondhand, in the blissful sensation of having everything ahead of you. As they accept shots and bottles of wine and hugs, the song with which the film began, ‘What a Life,’ from Danish pop group Scarlet Pleasure begins to play. And, wonder of wonders, surrounded by young minds and fired up about life again, Martin finally allows himself to be talked into dancing. It is here that Martin's moves become more instinctive and passionate, like a man breaking shackles and chains off his life. He transforms into a fusion of balletic, soaring bird and pop-inflected hip-bumping rock star. Sometimes he punctuates his moves with a clap drawn from some folk dance. It’s irresistible. You might have to get up and dance too. He's drinking in celebration, like we do all the time. He's dancing because he's in love. Moreover, he's really in love with his life, not really life itself. You see, the goal in life really shouldn't be finding a way to like or love life itself. It's better if you carve out a slice of it for you and yours, and make that what it needs to be. Martin is dancing and smiling, because he is in love with his life and who he is in that particular moment. Hope has restored some of the grace in his head, and the demons and anguish have been hidden away. It’s joyful and genuinely impressive — proof that he may not be the same Martin of a dozen years ago, but those feelings and experiences aren’t lost to him, even if his horizons aren’t as expansive as they used to be. When he runs through the spray of shaken Champagne bottles, he flings his arms out and his head back like a runner crossing the finish line, though the feeling is not of a race being over but one that keeps stretching forward, with plenty of time left, still, for the unexpected. Another Round has no interest in indulging its characters’ self-pity or portraying them as interested in reclaiming lost youth, instead treating their malaise with an openhearted earnestness. And in that closing sequence, it offers an ecstatic reminder that someone may not still think of himself as a dancer, but that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten how to dance.”