Roundly Dismissed

The descriptions of some movies are better than the movies themselves. The stories behind the making of some movies are better than the movies themselves. Both of these are true of Another Round, the Danish film (originally named Druk) that won many awards, including the Oscar for Best International Feature Film.

Four friends, all teachers at the same Copenhagen college prep school, get together to celebrate a 40th birthday in the group. Conversation turns to a theory of psychiatrist Finn Skårderud, that human beings are more creative and relaxed with a slightly elevated Blood Alcohol Content. They decide to conduct a scientific experiment using themselves as test subjects, and are soon living their lives drunk at all times.

It's sort of a tantalizing premise: a group of guys think they're better people when maintaining a buzz every waking hour. But there aren't actually many places to go with that premise. Either they're right, and you don't have much a story... or they're wrong, and the end of the story is inevitable. Bristling against either of these natural outcomes, Another Round charts an odd path where "hitting rock bottom" doesn't actually seem to mean much for most of the characters. Any consequences they face are held up by the movie not as tragic, but as a bizarre celebration of life. It doesn't work for me at all; I found it more "foreign" than the Danish language spoken throughout the film.

I can't help but feel like the many awards given to this film (including the Oscar I mentioned, a BAFTA, and a European Film Award) are actually prizes of another sort being given to the director and co-writer, Thomas Vinterberg. He had adapted his own stage play, taking inspiration from his daughter Ida, who was set to play a role in the movie. Four days into filming, Ida was killed in a car accident. Production limped along for another week with the other writer, Tobias Lindholm, taking director duties. The script was re-written on the fly, and Vinterberg then returned to complete the new version, reportedly more uplifting and life-affirming than the original.

It's hard not to be moved by Vinterberg's personal story here. In the face of one of the worst tragedies life can deal you, he threw himself into creating art, dedicating it to his daughter's memory and trying to wrest something positive from the sorrow. I like that story very much. But as I said above, the story of the movie itself feels forced and unnatural to me. I can't be sure what the original script looked like here, but I would wager it seemed more realistic (to me, at least) than the finished version. Some people might truly like this version. But I feel that many of these awards recognized the accomplishment here (considerable, to be sure) more than the film itself.

The one thing I would recommend about Another Round is the chance to see star Mads Mikkelsen in the lead role of Martin. Hollywood has embraced Mikkelsen as a villain in everything from a James Bond movie to the Hannibal TV series -- and he is excellent in those roles. But Mikkelsen is equally strong here in a role that's not larger than life, and is comparatively more sympathetic and sweet. (As much as a raging alcoholic can be, anyway.) I think anybody watching Another Round would commend this performance; I'm not glad to have seen much else here.

I'd give Another Round a D+. I can imagine strong reactions different from mine, though I'm also a bit hard-pressed to identify just who I think would like the movie more than I did.