Seems that most movies centered around booze fall into one of two extremes.
Either characters party and drink without any real consequence, such as college movies and teen comedies, or someone drinks to excess and becomes a full-blown alcoholic who needs to get their life together.
Rarely does a movie try to meet somewhere in the middle but Danish director Thomas Vinterberg tries to tightrope walk that thin line in his new movie "Another Round," (in Danish it's titled "Druk.") He teams up again with Mads Mikkelson, who starred in his classic film "The Hunt," and yet again they are both disregarding society norms and rethinking the rules of the world.
"Another Round" is really an ensemble piece, although Mikkelson is featured the most and he's recognizable to American audiences due to his appearances in "Casino Royale," "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," "Doctor Strange" and his role as Dr. Lecter in the TV series "Hannibal."
The movie tells the story of four middle aged teachers who feel stuck in a rut. During a birthday dinner, one of them tells about how a doctor once said that human beings naturally have a blood alcohol content of about 0.05 percent below where it should be. The theory is that people should -- at almost all times -- have about one or two drinks in their system to feel more relaxed and confident.
The come up with a plan to do just that. They say it'll be a scientific experiment and they will document the results. The rules are that they don't drink after 8 p.m. or on weekends. Mostly just during the work day.
The results are fairly amusing but never played for broad laughs. Mikkelson comes alive teaching his history students and his romantic life is revitalized with his wife, who had seemed to lose interest in him.
Historical icons like Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill, Ulysses S. Grant and Boris Yeltzin are referenced as proof that a man can like his booze and still achieve great things.
But predictably the characters decide that an 0.05 BAC isn't enough and they should push it further. They reach regular BAC's of 1.6 or higher and stumble their way through life. They wet the bed and cause a scene at work. The experiment has gone too far.
Because the movie jumps back and forth between light antics and sad drama, it sometimes isn't clear what the actual message of the movie is. Maybe we're supposed to figure it out ourselves, but perhaps the movie is saying that alcohol is neither a solution to or a cause of life's problems. It really all comes from within.
The movie itself actually avoids dealing with discussing the issues around alcoholism, even though one character doesn't have as happy of an ending as the others. If you or a loved one have dealt with alcoholism, you might be troubled -- or even offended -- by this movie's stance, but you have to understand that the culture surrounding alcohol is much different in Europe and they have much lower rates of alcohol-related deaths.
Still, I sometimes raised my eyebrows at the film's suggestion that someone can "just not drink as much" and their problems are solved quite easily. Maybe that's true for some people, but they don't really dig too deep into that topic.
Critics are raving that "Another Round" is the feel good movie of 2020 and at times the film certainly does lift the spirits. The final 15 minutes will definitely put a smile on your face. But the movie does have some incredibly sad moments and the issues surrounding them are solved rather quickly without much discussion.
The movie itself I personally found to be quite intoxicating. I was watching it late at night and I told myself I'd only watch 30 minutes or an hour and then I'd go to bed and watch the rest the next day. I ended up staying up to finish the entire thing, which says something because watching a movie with subtitles late at night can often hurt my eyes. Just like the characters in the movie, I wanted more.
The movie certainly does romanticize alcohol and early in the film you'll find yourself wanting to grab your drink of choice. But as you see the characters push it too far you might decided to put a cork in the bottle.
Currently, you can rent "Another Round" from local indie movie theater Web sites, like the Avalon Theatre, for the price of a ticket (around $12 for 48 hour rental). I'm not sure if Central Indiana movie theaters will be showing this one but it's scheduled to hit streaming services on Dec. 18, so you'll be able to rent it then. It's certainly worth a watch for Mikkelson's performance alone.
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