Worth: $13.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, Lars Ranthe
Intro:
The hangover kicks in before the film has fully played out.
Danish director Thomas Vinterberg (Festen, Far From the Madding Crowd) loves a bit of controversy. Along with Lars Von Trier, he co-wrote the famous 1995 ‘manifesto’ for the rules of Dogme filmmaking. This included no heavy reliance on special effects, and a concentration upon pared-back storytelling and character. The ideas weren’t as revolutionary as this act of self-promotion spruiked them to be, but there was a freshness and an ‘up yours’ attitude to their early efforts. Vinterberg (often) keeps faith with his original approach, as he does in this simple tale (based on his own student film) of mid-career rebellious school teachers.
There are four of them and they are all feeling a little stale and finding their jobs routine. When one of them says he has an idea to shake things up, they all decide to give it a go. The ‘theory’ is that people often perform a little bit better with just a small amount of alcohol. So, they decide that they will try the idea for a set period. This involves them turning up to teach a little tipsy. Initially, they find that their classes are more fun and that, by being looser and pushing the envelope a bit, they can connect with their pupils better.
They are pretty happy with their little experiment, and as this is partly an exercise in male bonding (which has often been aided by alcohol) they start to egg each other on to try it in different contexts and arenas. Soon, they reason that if a little booze makes things go well, then, a lot should make things go excellently. Obviously, we can all see the flaw in the logic here but, so far, Vinterberg has managed to bring us along for the ride.
It does help that one of the gang is played by Mads Mikkelsen. He is a stalwart of this kind of project (see his brilliant turn in Vinterberg’s excoriating The Hunt). He also has that energy and confidence tinged with just a little menace (as he showed in the TV series Hannibal). It’s true that he doesn’t have to do very much, but he still anchors the film by his sheer presence.
It is a problem that we don’t get a lot of back story before they head for the bottle. There isn’t quite enough identification with the characters to really feel much pathos for their plight. In the end, the film does feel a bit one-idea. We know that it is a bad idea too and, whilst it is sometimes funny to watch people partying or going OTT, like drinking, it can become a little repetitive. The hangover kicks in before the film has fully played out.
Yes, I agree with your comments here, although my criticisms are harsher than yours. The only way I could make any sense of the film was a comment made by one of men’s wives that ‘everyone in Denmark drinks like maniacs’. It all seemed so juvenile and last century.
But other than that, why would four reasonably sensible men agree to this project? A few years ago I might have felt obliged to apologise for my wowserish response to this film, but no longer. Alcohol is bad news in lots of ways – and I’m very surprised the [otherwise sensible] Danes have not figured that out.