Starring Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, Lars Ranthe. Directed by Thomas Vinterberg.
Druk or Another Round is an interesting film, one that explores drinking while working, and the lives of middle-aged teachers. In many ways, it’s a classic Thomas Vinterberg film.
Following Mads Mikkelsen’s Martin, a teacher who fears he’s become boring, along with his three friends, the tale follows the group as they decide to keep a steady level of alcohol in their system as a means to explore if it improves their lives.
Vinterberg often gets career-best performances from his actors in whatever film, and in re-teaming with Mikkelsen after the intense The Hunt, we again get to see him as a teacher facing a life-changing issue. Mikkelsen is an actor of fantastic intensity, able to maintain a broken sense of self as well as doing very little and yet telling you everything you need to know.
There is an idea that a certain amount of alcohol lowers inhibitions and allows you to be the person you truly are, and the idea of measuring alcohol level and maintaining a certain level is an interesting one. It’s a film about corruption with alcohol as a villainous threat that lurks the entire time.
Vinterberg and his co-writer Tobias Lindholm do a good job of making the characters boring but likeable in the beginning, so that when they come out of their shells and energise their classes you actually feel happy for them, and want them to continue. The film also has an interesting comment on society’s acceptance of alcohol.
There’s an interesting montage showing famous leaders clearly drunk on the world stage, the joke being that this is commonly accepted and allowed without ever beginning to impact them; even the sight of a grinning Boris Johnson holding a pint shows that it’s a worldwide culture.
Vinterberg is smart in his avoidance of an outright condemnation of drinking, though. An opening montage shows us the way it brings people together, and scenes of the four men playing football or playing around is joyous to watch; it also shows that when a person is able to be themselves they can improve other people too. The classes they teach – history, sports, choir – all become better for them having more self-belief.
There is a constant sense that the drinking will inevitably go too far, especially in Mikkelsen’s Martin who we’re shown is prone to clumsiness when he’s had one too many. When the bad times come around, Vinterberg has laid the groundwork for you to care about how Mikkelsen is spiralling, so that it becomes more tragic; you know that he’s a good person, and not just a slave to drink and yet, he has become that because of it.
What the ending means will be up to the viewer, as Vinterberg has never been one for offering easy answers to his films, but there’s sympathy in the portrayal of his central characters, and this maybe offers a belief in a middle ground. It’s an easier film than The Hunt and offers Mikkelsen something more fun to play around with, and thanks to steady direction and a sublime central turn from Mikkelsen, Another Round proves to be a strong drama about moderation.
