Another Round

Grade: A-

Due to subtitles in foreign language films, sometimes, if it’s a joke line, the reader of the caption gets the punchline before it’s finished coming out of the speaker’s mouth, and before the other onscreen characters react to it. That happened in a classroom scene in the Danish movie Another Round. Four high school teacher friends come upon an old scientific theory that states the human body is made up of too low an alcohol level, and that what we know as 0.05% should be zero or “normal.” From this, these 4 guys embark on an experiment where they go through the school days trying to keep their BAC at about point-oh-five, and see what that does for their abilities as teachers and people. That’s buzzed, but far from wasted. To maintain this, it of course means sneaking in booze, popping into a restroom stall to do little swigs here and there, or – in the coach’s case – filling up his water bottle with another clear liquid. “Are we or are we not alcoholics?” – one man asks. “We’re not alcoholics,” another replies. “We decide when we want to drink. An alcoholic can’t help himself.”

At first, their results are generally positive, especially in the case of Martin, our lead character. Actor Mads Mikkelsen, who looks like Viggo Mortensen and Jimmy Smits hooked up and had a kid together, plays a history teacher who had been quiet, vacant, and boring at work and home for too long, and suddenly comes to life everywhere at .05. His students are engaged like never before, and his wife remarks “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve missed you.” The 4 guys figure since this is going so well, why not see if we could go a little higher? And a little higher. And a little higher. And hey, I got some absinthe. Let’s try it. How about a couple more rounds?

Another Round’s two Oscar nominations are for Best International Feature Film and Best Director (Thomas Vinterberg), but I liked it better than most of the Best Pictures. It is a unique, absorbing, smart look into the futile merry-go-round that is alcohol abuse. The view may be constantly changing, but it’s the same view that comes back around in a cycle. There are some laughs to be had (primarily at their expense), like when one guy remembers his wife asked him to pick up fresh cod, so – in the middle of their absinthe binge – on they stumble to the seafood market, trying to be cool while they get slurry and confrontational with the employees for being out of cod. And the fact that it’s in Danish, a language I don’t speak anyway, makes it funnier for me. A couple of times I was envious of these guys, but most of the time, I was glad I wasn’t them.

The way things play out might, understandably, not sit well with people. This is not a trite, predictable story where they realize the error of their ways and get clean. We get the feeling there is more journey to be had after the end credits. There is a lot to unpack in the marvelous last scene, which simultaneously manages to be fun, exhilarating, and sad, in a dizzying juggling act, and I loved it. The characters may be on the carousel, but we are on the roller coaster of emotions. The great philosopher Homer Simpson did once say “Here’s to alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.”

Grade: A-