Rating: Not Rated
Runtime: 1 hour, 57 minutes
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Quick Impressions:
There’s something you need to know about Druk before you watch, something I wish I had known. I’ve wanted to see this film for quite a while because I love Mads Mikkelsen, and even though I hadn’t seen the performance yet, I was hoping he might sneak into Best Actor. (There isn’t room in the category for all the guys I wanted to sneak in there. The clear answer is to expand the category. I refuse to limit my enthusiasm.)
I never mention Mikkelsen these days without also giving a shoutout to the polar bear (who co-starred with him in Arctic) and then gushing, “He was amazing in The Hunt, that Best Foreign Film nominee from a few years ago where he’s accused of molesting a child?” (I mean Mikkelsen, obviously, not the polar bear.)
The director of The Hunt, Thomas Vinterberg, also directed Another Round (known as Druk in its native Denmark). This year, though Mikkelsen didn’t manage to pull off a surprise Best Actor nod, Vinterberg did sneak into Best Director. Those who follow the Oscars often describe the Academy’s directors branch as an inscrutable bunch, motivated by snobbery, caprice, and, occasionally, malice. It’s true that for the past couple of decades, “surprise” nominations and snubs show up in this category an awful lot.
I’m sure professional critics, Oscar bloggers, and Hollywood insiders know what they’re talking about. But personally, I’ll give the directors branch the benefit of the doubt and assume they know more about directing than I do. In fact, I know nothing about directing, which is why I never include Best Director in my annual write up of major Oscar categories. I’ve never directed anything, and my untrained eye has trouble distinguishing which elements of the film to attribute absolutely to its director. (When it comes to Best Picture, any viewer can determine a film’s cumulative effect and success. The acting categories work that way, too. Plus, I understand acting. I’m not especially gifted at it, but I’ve done it.) Directing is more mysterious to me.
So as I started watching this movie, the question burning in my mind was, “Why did the directors branch overlook the perfectly viable directors of films nominated for Best Picture and other tantalizing American options like Regina King and Spike Lee, to bestow a nomination on this Danish director whose film many average American movie goers might not have heard of?” (So far Another Round does not have the same kind of traction as Roma or Parasite.) I mean, the directors branch selected Vinterberg’s work for a reason. It came to their attention somehow. Presumably they didn’t just draw his name out of a hat.
Another Round is excellent, one of the best films of the long 2020, but why did the directors branch think of singling out Vinterberg for such a high honor?
Well, there are a couple of things, things I didn’t know until after watching the movie. First of all, as I said, Vinterberg did direct an Oscar-nominated foreign film just a few years ago. (Okay! Wow! I guess The Hunt came out in 2012? It does not feel that long ago!) (Don’t confuse it with the American film The Hunt, which is still the last movie I saw in the theater.)
But here’s the big thing. For Vinterberg, Another Round is a very personal film. He intended it to be the movie debut of his nineteen-year-old daughter, Ida, who was enthusiastic about the idea of depicting Danish youth culture (and its obsession with alcohol consumption) on screen. Her classmates were supposed to appear as extras, and Ida herself was cast in the role of Mikkelsen’s character’s daughter. But then only days into production, Ida was killed in a car crash. Overcome by grief, Vinterberg took some time to consider how to proceed, then finally decided to continue the film in his daughter’s honor. (You can see a dedication to Ida in the end credits.) He made some changes so that a movie mainly focused on alcohol morphed into a film about much more, about life and connection, about going on in the face of adversity, of tragedy. And Ida’s classmates still appear in the film.
That compelling behind-the-scenes story makes Vinterberg’s Oscar nomination quite moving. Like the film, the nomination seems to honor the memory of his daughter’s life. And it’s a beautiful movie. We loved it.
The Good:
When I heard that Another Round was a comedy about middle-aged men who decide to maintain a consistent, elevated blood alcohol level at all times, I expected something a bit different tonally than what the film actually gives us. Although there are some moments that make us smile and laugh and a few instances of zany physical comedy, I’m pretty sure that most movie goers would describe this as a drama. It has lots of life, lots of energy (especially when the protagonists are drinking), but Mikkelsen’s character begins in a place of such deep sadness. He may have clinical depression. At the very least, he’s grown disenchanted with life.
From the start, Mikkelsen’s performance is conspicuously excellent. The actors playing his friends are also good and have some fine moments, but Mikkelsen is the clear standout. Early in the film, before I had any reason to be particularly invested in his character, Martin, I felt the sorrow of his character so intensely that I almost cried for him myself. But what I remember most is his amazing dance. (As a child, Martin took jazz ballet, you see. The movie really makes us wait to see the reward promised by this early line of dialogue.) Martin’s dance scene is so incredible that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I watched it. Mikkelsen does all of his own dancing, quite a feat. It’s too bad Best Actor can’t be expanded to at least seven slots. (There would never be a problem filling them. Most films are anchored by a lead male actor. Even in an unusual year like this when traditional theatrical releases are way down, finding seven or eight worthy nominees for Best Actor would be no problem. I can do it now. Delroy Lindo, Mads Mikkelsen, Tom Hanks.)
On the surface, this film is about drinking. But make no mistake. Another Round is really about living, about fully, actively participating in life. It’s better to feel deeply than not to feel, the film suggests. Life is tragedy juxtaposed with joy. When we forget this, we lose our way. Mikkelsen’s Martin and his friends are middle-aged high school teachers, all disappointed in their lives for various reasons. One of them, Nikolaj (Magnus Millang) teaches psychology and introduces them all to someone’s theory that human beings naturally have a blood alcohol level that is too low. According to this (potentially spurious) idea, people will achieve more and feel better if they raise their blood alcohol level and maintain that level throughout the day. Martin, Nikolaj and their two friends Peter (Lars Ranthe) and Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen) agree to conduct (and document) a psychological experiment to put this theory to the test. They’ll drink every work day, testing their BAC periodically to ensure it remains at the proper level. But they won’t drink after 8:00 pm, and they won’t drink on the weekends. (They reason with innocent optimism that this worked for Ernest Hemingway, which is surely intended as dark humor.)
On the surface, Martin’s biggest problem is that he’s a boring history teacher. (My husband pointed out as we watched that he was probably boring because he was bored.) But as the ordinarily reserved Martin begins to open up, we learn that he’s also a boring father and a boring husband. This last thing seems to be at the heart of what’s bothering him.
What really makes a difference to these men’s lives is not alcohol, but connection. They’re excited to be doing a thing. And they’re doing it together. And while they’re doing it, they’re able to find new ways to connect with their students, helping them (students and teachers) to become more engaged in the subjects they teach.
But this is the kind of scenario that you watch with mounting concern because you know that eventually something bad is going to happen. And when it does, things really start to get interesting.
Best Scene:
That Mads Mikkelsen dancing scene is playing on infinite loop in my head. For one thing, I love the song (now). For another, Mikkelsen’s dancing is really quite impressive. It looks fun, so fluid and energized. It makes you want to join in. And it helps to drive home the profound idea that the film is trying to express in a way that makes us feel the meaning in our bones. Also, Mikkelsen is a skilled dancer. He doesn’t use a dance double, and some of his moves look really strenuous and difficult. Just for the dancing, he deserves a Best Actor nomination. I hope Another Round wins Best Foreign Film. (Of course, I haven’t seen the other nominees yet.)
Best Scene Visually:
Mads Mikkelsen’s face is the best visual in this movie. I don’t mean that he’s handsome (though he is). I mean that he does a lot of excellent nonverbal acting. Sometimes, just his facial expressions, his eyes, a twist of his mouth tell us so much. This is doubly impressive because he also has so many significant lines and displays such physicality.
In the first restaurant scene with his friends, the gradual changes in Mikkelsen’s face are riveting and practically moved me to tears. Later, we see a moment of physical intimacy between Mikkelsen’s Martin and his wife Anika (Maria Bonnevie) on a camping trip. The reaction to what she says here lingers on his face and in our minds for the next several scenes.
There is also a wonderful image of what I think is a Subaru in the snow. (It looks like the car my friend used to drive in college, so I think it’s a Subaru.)
Best Action Sequence:
The big moment at the children’s soccer game is strangely moving and pairs nicely with another moment involving Tommy and “Specs” later on.
Best Scene Aurally:
As I said, I can’t get the music from that dance sequence out of my head. I also enjoyed hearing the children (and teens) sing various songs about their native Denmark.
The Negatives:
Some of the ideas put forward by this film are quite provocative and may be harmful. I couldn’t stop thinking, “Martin’s problem looks like clinical depression to me. Instead of drinking, maybe he should try an antidepressant.” But then, you know, the movie keeps saying that everyone in Denmark drinks too much. And according to the media (and some medical professionals) America is overmedicated, right? We’re a country that solves everything with prescription drugs. We solve everything with a pill. More than once, I thought, “Martin should lay off the alcohol and take an antidepressant.” But then I thought, “Of course, that might come with unpleasant side effects, maybe even sexual side effects.” One of his goals is rekindling his marriage. Alcohol seems to make him a more passionate lover, a more robust participant in just about everything. It enables him to enjoy his life, and he doesn’t drink on the weekends (for the most part). You can’t just selectively take anti-depressants that way, not if you want them to work. I kept thinking, “Maybe we would all be better off in this country if we all had a glass of wine in the afternoon instead of medicating our problems away with prescription drugs.”
But you see, that’s a dangerous way of thinking. To me, it seems like a slippery slope. I’m sure part of it is America’s puritanical roots kicking in to torment me. But something seems problematic to me about, say, needing a drink to pass an exam. Isn’t it somehow more wholesome not to need the drink? And perhaps alcohol does enhance life for some, but Martin and his friend’s are playing a dangerous game you could call Spot the Addict. Keep increasing your limits, continue day drinking as a rigorous practice, and I guarantee you that before long you will discover which of your friends has a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. When you develop a regimen of drinking every day, not everyone will be able to stop on a whim. For some people, that will be nearly impossible. (Nikolaj made me furious sometimes. His biggest problem is that his rich wife isn’t nice to him when he complains that his young son wets the bed. Meanwhile, he’s not paying much attention to some of his friends who may have deeper problems.)
So yes, a little wine might enhance life, but not for somebody with alcoholism. And using wine to reignite one’s spark for living might be beneficial to some people, but some of us require a different remedy for our mental health issues. Wine isn’t the answer for everything. Taking Martin’s own example, the one he uses in the classroom, do you really think you could make Hitler a better person if you encouraged him to drink as much as Churchill? I think you would just have Drunk Hitler. (Maybe his art would improve, but who cares?) (Part of me is not so sure that Martin’s lessons are so great. Maybe they just seem better to him because he’s drunk. I mean, that Roosevelt, Churchill, Hitler thing has been circulating on the internet since I was a teenager. As I said to my husband last night, “There’s a flaw in that kind of thinking. The absence of vice is not the same as virtue. And having vices does not prevent you from having virtues.” Drinking a lot is probably not what made famous alcoholics of history so great. On the other hand, the connection Martin makes with his students is really what matters.)
I don’t know. The film made me think a lot about drinking. I suppose like everything else, alcohol is neither good nor bad for most people. But I do find it interesting that after the catastrophic consequences of their experiment, the men do not give up drinking. It’s a deliberate choice made by the characters. The film is making a statement here. Perhaps I agree, but I worry that I shouldn’t. The idea is vaguely troubling, but it is also what makes the ending of the story feel so profound.
Overall:
Another Round is a moving film that becomes even more moving when you learn the real-life story of the director’s daughter Ida. Thomas Vinterberg is deservedly nominated for Best Director, and though not nominated, Mads Mikkelsen gives a performance worthy of Best Actor. I hope this wins Best Foreign Film.