The midlife crisis movie genre has never been so deftly handled as it is in “Another Round.” Thomas Vinterberg’s Oscar-winning film brilliantly captures the heartache and joy that comes from feeling lost in your life, then finding yourself again. Mads Mikkelsen gives a stunning performance as Martin, a boring history teacher and man that has lost his self-confidence in the monotony of life and proves that he can play anything you throw at him. (Hollywood, please cast him as someone other than a villain once in a while).

Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm’s lean script allows the audience to discover the plot as it comes rather than having it conveniently spelled out through exposition.

The film follows four middle-aged Copenhagen high school teachers, Martin, Tommy, Nikolaj and Peter (Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang and Lars Ranthe), all intelligent and thoughtful men, who ponder during Nikolaj’s 40th birthday dinner a Norwegian philosopher’s idea that humans are born with a blood alcohol content .05% too low. They hypothesize that someone, like Martin, who has lost his confidence in teaching and has been called out by parents and students for his blase teaching style, would benefit from a belt or two before lessons.

Martin decides to give the thought a try and has a few swigs of vodka before school the following day. To his great surprise, the booze loosens him up, allowing him to overcome any anxieties or apathy he has for his classroom and manages to teach a compelling lesson. Buoyed up, he lets his friends know and they all decide to give it a try, with the intention of documenting everything each of them experiences in the most scientific way they can. This includes following strict guidelines of staying at the .05% BAC and never drinking after 8 p.m., on the weekends or during holidays.

They each see success with their experimentations and Martin even sees an improvement in his relationship with his wife, Anika (Maria Bonnevie), which has also been stagnant of late.

Martin soon wonders if he can handle more, compelled to find the perfect balance that enhances his overall performance and enjoyment in teaching again. So he begins taking his BAC double to that of the original philosophized idea with the rest of his crew following suit.

But as their drinking increases, cracks in their personal lives begin to break open and the problems that faced them before, come to a head.

It’s important to remember going in that Europe sees alcohol much differently than we Americans do and that Denmark has one of the highest rates of youth intoxication in Europe. The film doesn’t shy away from the drinking culture of the country and the youth of it, and instead of vilifying or celebrating it, it uses it to highlight the spark of youthful zeal and joy that is eventually lost as we grow older. The audience sees these bright-eyed students (the drinking age is 16 in Denmark) binge drinking with their friends having the time of their lives and we then see the quiet, reserved, almost boring life of someone like Martin. It’s no wonder he feels like he’s lost something.

The film is full of fun moments of levity and light before turning to more somber tones which are never huge downers as they could have easily become with an American-made movie.

Instead, everything is played out with intense realism. It would be so easy for performers to go over the top with portrayed drunkenness, but each of the four leads really hits all the cues so subtly and with great effect, it’s hard not to wonder if they weren’t a little inebriated while filming (they weren’t as far as I can tell).

The film culminates in a melancholic but joyful ending that will have you grinning through tears and swelled with equal amounts of hope and sadness.

Truly an amazingly moving film about living your life while you have it. I’d drink to that.

“Another Round”

117 minutes

No MPAA rating

3.5 stars