Some say that the worst enemy of human beings are monotony, boredom or procrastination, which I agree with, these three evil beings act silently and destroy you inside, but is it really our fault? A routine that for us is pleasant, sooner or later it will exhaust us, call it watching movies or playing video games, whatever you think of as a pleasant routine can become something harmful in the long time, but what happens when this monotony permeates so much between us? Things like our day-to-day duties exhaust us more mentally than ever, as I said before, all this tumult of sensations can destroy us inside, twist our personalities and turn us into someone without emotions.
Martin is a person who, as an adult, is a professional, a teacher who is in charge of the duty of teaching his students, however, he finds himself trapped in a monotony spiral of boredom, he realizes that he has stopped being the same a long time ago, as if he lived his life in automatic mode, even people close to him like his wife feel worn out by his presence; shadows of his past haunt him, his friends, previously described as a fun and passionate person, and today, he is only a shadow of what he once was.
Alcohol is a strong protagonist in this story, since his friends convince him that for whatever reason I won´t mention so as not to spoil you the plot, he should drink more, although he is not adept at doing so, since he is a man with responsibilities and a job, but ends up succumbing to alcohol, realizing that being drunk seems to be a totally different person, that's how he and his friends get ready to drink more than before, every day, before work, not drinking too much not to get drunk, but enough to give some excitement to their lives, especially Martin, who does this longing to be what he was in his past.
Another Round, more than being a descent into the madness of Martin and his friends, is a reflection of a society very normalized to alcohol and how - said by its own characters - in their respective country, drinking alcohol is the day to day, of course, the film shows the negative consequences of taking alcoholism to the extreme and how it can ruin your relationships and personal life, but in my opinion this aspect was not taken to the final consequences, at least, enough to show that the characters were doing morally questionable things. Another Round generally tries to be an unbiased story, so at no point did I feel like it was demonizing or glorifying alcohol.
The story allows its characters to evolve, having their respective development or deconstruction, all of this accompanied by a sometimes slow pacing, or rather, that it takes its time to present the key elements of the plot, that didn´t annoy me, I think it was necessary since you get better acquainted with the environment and its characters, we are also able to see how drinking alcohol is favoring them in their personal life, in exchange for their mental health, which as the story goes on, it will deteriorate with time.
Our body works through a self-rewards system, every time we do something that makes us feel good, our brain rewards us with the famous substance called dopamine, the complicated thing is that each shot of dopamine will always be bigger than the previous one, there will be a time when it´ll be impossible for us to control it if we take it to an extreme level, perhaps a shot of alcohol is enough for you, but if you do not control yourself, your body will ask you for two, then three, then four, you will become into a slave of your own impulses, ruining your life if it's too late, which is basically the situation the characters live through, no matter how much you say you have control, your body will always ask you for more and if you don't know how to control yourself, well, nothing good will happen.
I have to say that aspects such as the soundtrack, well, I liked it but not that much, maybe because I am ignorant to the culture it comes from, but at least for me, it did its job well and that is what matters, besides, the photography was cool, there were certain parts in which the angles I felt were very well positioned, I would like to cover this part more but honestly it is not that I am a scholar on the subject, I´d love to but that´s not the case.
Making a little summary of what I said, Another Round is a film that reflects a society which has normalized alcohol and shows the consequences of that, it is a criticism of alcoholism or rather, of people who abuse alcohol, reflects the fact that it is a substance that can destroy you both physically and mentally if you do not know how to handle it, even so, felt to me that the film is quite impartial in its own themes, showing us something like a "good" side and a "bad" side, or, depending on what you consider as good in this case.
The actors do their job very well, but the undisputed star is Mads Mikkelsen, I know the guy's filmography and I've seen some of his work but this time he was amazing, with just one look he can make you feel all kinds of sensations, like frustration or sadness.
Personally, I don´t think that drinking is bad as long as you moderate yourself and know your limits, not letting yourself be pressured by other people, the truth is that anything in excess can be harmful, even things that are accepted or that are theoretically good for us can lash out against our health if we take them to an extreme level, I believe that the education of citizens also comes into this, since if they are taught from an early age to drink alcoholic substances, they will be more likely to fall into that bottomless pit.
Screenshots were taken by me while watching the film