ANOTHER ROUND 12A
FILM OUT 2 JULY CINEMAS
Thomas Vinterberg and Mads Mikkelsen reunite for another study of a man in education – but don’t expect the same scalpel sharpness as The Hunt (2012) in this awards-chugging cautionary tale, which loses focus as surely as a daytime drinker.
Mikkelsen plays Martin, a history teacher whose marriage and career have reached calcification; the most fun he can muster is drinking a soda water at a mate’s birthday party. Fellow teacher and friend Nikolaj (Magnus Millang) devises a plan to inject some joie de vivre into their lives. Citing a (spurious) theory that humans are born with too low a blood-alcohol level, he suggests their gang drink daily to up their quota, inducing a buzz that will unlock creativity and boldness. The next day, the teachers drink wine for breakfast, neck vodka in the school loos and track their booziness via breathalysers.
As you might expect, all the drinking is fun – until it’s not. Though the teachers re-engage their students, go on amusing pissed supermarket jaunts, have sex on camping trips and enthusiastically write books, tragedy and disgrace also await. Director/ co-writer Vinterberg doesn’t seem to want to commit to either bacchanalian bombast or commentary on the social prevalence of alcohol, creating a bittersweet but ultimately directionless drama. Still, it’s a treat watching Mikkelsen play drunk – especially during a joyous, Christopher Walkenrivalling jazz dance. Jane Crowther