Review: Another Round (Druk) (2020)

For someone who proclaims himself to be a ‘cinephile’, my viewing of movies in languages which I can’t speak, are next to none. So, when a friend recommended ‘Another Round’ (originally titled Druk in Danish), I was apprehensive. And yet, I decided to go ahead because the lead actor is someone I love watching on screen – Madds Mikkelsen (Casino Royale).

 Another Round tells the story of Martin(Mikkelsen) and his three friends, all teachers at a school. All of them, our protagonist more than others, are in their middle ages and going through the quintessential mid-lifer crisis, where they have grown tired of their boring lives and are living their days out as ghosts of their past selves. Once over dinner, they discuss a supposed (pseudo-)scientific theory by Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud that we humans have 0.05 units of Blood Alcohol Content less than we should. While skeptical initially, Martin and the group decide to give this a try with some ground rules. The story unravels to show how the experiment turns out and what follows.

Source

                             Potential spoilers ahead. Proceed with caution.

As established in the opening sequence of the movie, as well as in lines such as the one by Anika (Martin’s wife) later in the film, drinking is well-engrained into the culture and life in that part of the world. As an audience, we aren’t strangers to movies dealing with alcoholism either (Spirit being the first one that comes to mind from recent times). Given all that, one might wonder what exactly is novel about a movie like Another Round.

Very rarely will we be able to find an absolutely flawless person — it’s a salient feature of humanity, the flawed nature. One such flaw of ours is to land the blame for our shortcomings and mistakes on circumstances external to us. Martin’s case is no different. Fair enough, asking him to put on his Jazz boots every other day would be too much to ask for, but as someone fortunate to do a job related to something he has a passion for; i.e. History and academics, he isn’t able to do that well either. As for his life as a family man, he feels that the fire has all but died down because of Anika’s night shifts among other things while being ignorant of his own disinterest and failure to be there for them.

While it’s a possibility and almost a proven fact that alcohol lowers inhibitions and relaxes a person, attributing all things around how looking up, like the renewed spring in his step, interest in his job, and love for his family are all eventually a function of little other than his personal choice. If he had only realized that this was the case, he wouldn’t have come up with the brilliant idea of taking things to the next level as fart as alcohol intake goes — more than anything else, it was a case of him and his friends enjoying the intoxication. Even if we allow for the argument that the experiment was a result of the supposed scientific theory, Skårderud doesn’t seem to have suggested in his paper to going the distance the group went and get absolutely wasted. Even in closing their ‘study’ the note seemingly outs the blame on the ill-effects of alcohol, rather than their choice to all out on it. As is the case in fiction and reality, it took a tragedy, to drive sense into the group.

In a very meta way, Sebastian’s answer in the test, that he’s able to give thanks to the confidence some alcohol in his system provided does a good job in summarising the story

…it’s a study of how human beings deal with the notion of failing, and the need to accept oneself as fallible

The closing sequence, where Martin brings his Jazz ballet steps out on his own accord, is indicative of how he has come to terms with who he is and what his life is, and his leap on which the frame freezes before cutting to credits is a symbol of his sense of liberation that he has gained from the incarceration he had imposed on himself. 

Does the movie justify alcohol? Maybe it does. After all, it is, as already noted, very much a part of their culture. Beyond that, a good takeaway from Another Round would be that seldom does alcohol kill you or dictate terms to you, unless you let it. As long as you have your hands on the wheel and your feet on the pedal, a beverage will have a hard time bringing you into servitude.

 At this point, you may say that I’m justifying alcohol — no, I ain’t. For a variety of reasons but mostly because I have never had a drink myself and have absolutely no idea about it. But I do know people who have had their fair share of spirits and I can tell you with some confidence that of all the ‘vices’ we can engage in, drinking is positively the one least likely to kill you and the one in which you have the best chance to pull the plug.

Cheers!