Review of Another Round

This Danish film (also titled Druk, which means "binge drinking") is one I found out about from Awards Season, the leading actor was a big draw for me, but it did also sound like an interesting story, from Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominated director Thomas Vinterberg (Festen, The Hunt, Far from the Madding Crowd). Basically, teachers Martin (BAFTA nominated Mads Mikkelsen), Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen), Peter (Lars Ranthe) and Nikolaj (Magnus Millang) are colleagues and friends at a high school in Copenhagen. All four struggle with unmotivated students and feel that their lives have become boring and uneventful. At a dinner celebrating Nikolaj's 40th birthday, the group discuss a theory by psychiatrist Finn Skårderud, that having a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.05 makes you more creative and relaxed. While the group dismisses the theory, Martin, who is depressed due to his marriage failing, is inspired and starts to drink at work. The rest of the group eventually decides to join him, noting their experiences as an experiment to test Skårderud's theory. They agree to a set of rules: their BAC should never be below 0.05 and that they should not drink after 8:00pm. Within a short period of time, Martin, Tommy, Peter and Nikolaj find both their work and private lives more enjoyable. Martin particularly is delighted that he is finally managing to reconnect with his wife and children. The group find this positivity a reason to agree to take the experiment further, and the four increase the daily BAC limit to 0.10. Continuing to find their lives improved, the group decides to attempt binge drinking to observe how their bodies and minds respond. They all have a fun night, but after coming home drunk, both Martin and Nikolaj are confronted by their families. Martin's family express their worries that he is becoming an alcoholic, saying that he has been noticeably drunk for weeks. Martin and his wife Anika (Marie Bonnevie) have a heated argument, during which she admits to infidelity, and Martin leaves her. The group soon experience the negative consequences of the experiment and abandon it. Months later, all the members of the group have stopped drinking during the day except for Tommy, who has become an alcoholic. On day at work whilst drunk, Tommy boards his boat with his dog, he sails out on the ocean and dies in an accident. Following Tommy's funeral, the three remaining friends go out to dinner and are reluctant to drink the alcohol which is served. While dining, Martin receives a message from his wife who tells him that she is willing to give their marriage another chance. Martin, Peter and Nikolaj join the recently graduated students in celebrating and allow themselves to drink again while the partying takes place at the harbour. Martin, a former jazz ballet dancer, had for some time been urged by colleagues and refused to dance. In high spirits and influenced by the alcohol, Martin dances with the students and guests. His dance becomes increasingly energetic and joyous, and it ends as he leaps into the water, on a freeze frame of him in mid-air. Also starring Susse Wold as Rektor. Mikkelsen and his three co-stars give convincing performances as the drunken chums who find a new lease of life, their lessons whilst tipsy in the classroom and in the outdoors are fun to watch, with clever camerawork to capture the controlled inebriation and emotional moments, and it has both amusing and dramatic scenes that keep things moving nicely, a great comedy-drama. It won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, it won the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language, and Best Original Screenplay, and it Golden Globe was Best Motion Picture - Foreign Language. Very good!