The hook of this movie, judging by the publicity campaigns and all the videos circulating on social media, is the scene where grey-haired internet boyfriend/uncle Mads Mikkelsen is dancing euphorically and getting showered in champagne by teenagers. And, in the context of the actual film, it is a scene you will find extremely rewarding by the time you get to it. But the publicity has not really focused on what Thomas Vinterburg’s movie is about: four men, feeling lost and in the drudgery of middle-aged life, unsatisfying careers and apathetic family lives, who decide to change it all up. They do this by testing out a Norwegian psychiatrist’s hypothesis about the benefits of having a certain level of alcohol in one’s blood at all times. The audience is left to follow all of the changes to their lives that happen as a result.The supporting male cast are fantastic, all sweetly embodying a certain kind of ‘guy’, a certain kind of forgotten male, who have all lost the joy of life somewhere in Nordic suburbia. What happens when you feel like you don’t have dignity anymore?
Another Round is primarily about what it feels like to not have a zest for living, and the desperation that can go into reclaiming it. But it’s also about what it means to have genuine, loving male camaraderie – and how we support each other when the aforementioned hypothesis veers into tragedy. But that’s enough dressing it up. It’s just a really good movie.
“I guess I’m just… Mad for Mads! Hah!”
