[VIFF 2020] REVIEW: Hands up for 'Another Round'

Mads Mikkelsen stars in Another Round, directed by frequent collaborator Thomas Vinterberg.

Life is a little more fun when there’s alcohol involved, right? In Another Round, four middle-aged schoolteachers decide to put that theory to the test and, as expected, the results are both hilarious and disastrous. Directed by Thomas Vinterberg and set against the heavy drinking culture of Denmark, the film is about the re-discovery of living life with fewer inhibitions and a little more joy.

Martin (Mads Mikkelsen) is a boring history teacher at a local high school. His increasingly loveless marriage with his wife has taken its toll, and most days he drones on in class until the bell. His students are as disinterested as him, save for their enthusiasm of a drinking game that requires graduates to finish a case of beer while running around a lake. Psychology teacher Nikolaj (Magnus Millang) is in a similar situation, married to a wife he continuously fails to satisfy, and along with music teacher Peter (Lars Ranthe) and gym teacher Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen), they decide to turn their lives around by drinking.

Based on the philosophical idea that people are born with an alcohol deficiency in their bodies, and that achieving enlightenment and happiness requires a constant BAC level of 0.05% (the legal limit for driving in most countries), the four teachers decide to conduct the experiment on themselves. The one rule: no drinking after 8 p.m. or during weekends. At first, the experiment seems to work. Martin is noticeably livelier during his classes, and the students respond in kind. He even manages to breathe a little life into his marriage once again. Nikolaj finds a little more happiness, Peter’s inhibitions lower and his music reaches new emotional depths, and Tommy’s enthusiasm on the soccer pitch proves infectious. There’s genuine chemistry between the four buddies and the relationships they cultivate with their students, and it proves vital because those bonds form the meat of the story.

In this pursuit of happiness, the four buddies continue to drink more and more, until the experiment starts to get out of hand. Martin stumbles around school and smashes his nose against a door frame, Nikolaj starts wetting himself in his sleep, Peter starts enabling his students to drink in order to quell their anxieties, and Tommy’s stash of booze in the equipment room is quickly discovered.

Thankfully, there’s no hammer-over-the-head moment that blasts what the four buddies have done, but their overindulgence does extract a fairly heavy cost. Credit goes to Vinterberg, who finds the right balance in showing how drinking can reduce barriers and bring people together, but also how much destruction it can cause. It is funny when it needs to be, serious when it needs to be, and, above all, never allowing the four friends to turn on one another. This is a small story about the pursuit of life and how we must all find a way to let loose once in a while.

Another Round gets three stars out of four.