Film: Another Round

 

 

 

Watching Another Round I felt as disengaged as a teetotaller at a drunken dinner party.

The film, directed by leading Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, is well made and well acted, with the engaging Mads Mikkelsen in the leading role.

 

 

But a good deal of the action consists of four middle-aged teachers, among them Mikkelsen, embarassing themselves and those around them with a series of

unfunny drunken antics.

Martin, Tommy, Peter and Nikolaj are bored with their work and jaded with life in general.

At a dinner celebrating Nikolaj’s 40th birthday, they decide to test an obscure psychiatric theory that we would all perform better with a constant low level of alcohol in

our blood.

 

 

They agree to maintain their blood alcohol level at a steady 0.05% during the day (these are teachers!) and not to drink at all after 8pm.

At first the results are impressive. They all develop a new zest for life, with a revived passion for teaching and renewed happiness at home.

Then it all goes pear-shaped.

If everything is better with an 0.05% level of alcohol, why not double it? Why not try binge-drinking to see how their minds and bodies respond?

Not surprisingly, the boozy quartet fall out with friends, family and employers.

 

 

The film has been generally well-received by critics but I found it predictable and unrewarding.

Another Round, part of the Perth Festival LotteryWest film season, runs at UWA”s Somerville Auditorium from Monday, December 28 to Sunday, January 3 at 8pm.

Watch the trailer…