"Another Round" Just Fantastic

 

    It has been nearly six years since I first watched Another Round. I remember seeing the trailer as a high-schooler who had very limited interactions with alcohol, thinking the premise was novel, but not really coming in with any sort of experience with the subject matter. Of course I had some preconceived notions surrounding the subject matter, mainly that I wasn't particularly interested in it because alcohol didn't taste good, and that it had a tendency to bring out some negative tendencies in some people. Of course now, I'm not saying I'm a regular drinker, far from it, but my stance on drinking has changed pretty substantially, and I think I understand the film better now. I do appreciate that it basically took the concept of alcohol as this social lubricant to it's (very apparent) maximum. So let's talk about it.

    Perhaps when I'm 40 I'll be able to revisit this film once again, and think about how boring I've become, because this film does a really good job of making sure you can feel just how bland Martin's life is. Maybe it's because Mads is actually old, but he literally looks dead in the beginning of this film, with absolutely zero life in his eyes as he refuses to drink and tells his kids he'll be home early. And so, in an experiment with his closest friends, they decide to see if alcohol can become the mechanism which they can use to steer their rudderless lives out of the gutter, and ultimately I think the experiment was a success, at least for Martin.

    That's not to say I support drinking, especially on the job, by the end alcohol clearly became a crutch for them, but did Martin not ultimately learn to salvage his marriage because drinking taught him to live a little? It was very important for the film to show Martin going canoeing completely sober because he still enjoyed it even if he wasn't drunk. It was about how consuming alcohol even just a little bit more unfettered loosened him up, and reminded him that he needed to live a little, not just for himself, but for those around him. 

    When I first watched this film when I was younger I was confused at why he was still drinking at the end of the film, after all it killed one of his closest friends and it ruined his family life. But now I can see it was important to have Martin drink after the funeral. The final scene of this movie is almost like one of rebirth, with Martin wearing all black, not only to signify the death of his friend, but the death of his old life. Because now he can be honest with himself, he is finally able to start fixing a marriage that he was too blind to see was already broken for ages in front of him. And of course it's a full circle moment as he finally feels unabashed enough to dance, compared to one of the first scenes which started off this chain of events in the first place.

    All of this to say, I kind of get it. I live in Canada, specifically a major city, and I'm a bit of a homebody so drinking culture here is far from what it might be in Europe or Denmark. Though, I will admit, I basically use alcohol as a social lubricant too, I don't drink because I particularly enjoy the taste or the act of drinking, but there is something special socially about how it almost gives people an excuse to be more relaxed, more at ease, or to just be friendlier with other people. It is not only useful, but to me also just fun. I mean even after everything that went down, Peter goes and provides a student with a swig to calm their nerves, and sometimes alcohol can give that push someone needs hence the name liquid courage.

    Of course, it's pretty easy to also come away from this film feeling pretty hopeless. Like the events that transpired because of the alcohol were not transformational and ultimately positive to the participants of the experiment (kind of). Rather it just feels like they haven't learned, the pride that caused them to fall so far from grace is still there, and the movie ends with them simply accepting that in a culture that normalizes drinking so heavily, there is nothing to do but continue with the beast that's tormented them enough. I don't agree with this statement but I would also say the movie most definitely does not glorify drinking in any capacity, and is a pretty balanced look at the thin line alcohol can sometimes have.

Final Score: 85/100

    Kind of a fantastic film in my eyes, and if you don't watch foreign films often I say give it a chance. I will say the only aspect of the film that regularly irked me was the fact that they weren't caught sooner. Frankly, I don't take many breathalyzer tests very often so I don't actually know how much 0.5% BAC is in a normal person, but surely someone smelled the alcohol on their breath. I know Peter took breath mints, but you're telling me Specs couldn't tell Tommy was regularly taking swigs of alcohol on the field? You're telling me when Martin sat next to the students giddy at their excitement no one noticed if he smelled a little bit like alcohol? I'm not saying it ruined the film for me or anything, otherwise I would have included it before the score, and this is one of my few rare reviews where I focus more on the positive than the negative. But also, like seriously? Like I feel like it's pretty easy to tell if someone's been drinking by their breath. Maybe if I do the experiment myself I'll be able to see just how easy it is to hide the alcohol on my breath or something.