The Other Way Around (2024) Movie Drinking Game
Take a Drink: every time the couple breaks the news to someone they’re separating
Take a Drink: every time one or both say “but we’re fine!”
Do a Shot: whenever we see a hint that maybe one or both are not
By: Henry J. Fromage (Two Beers) –
The Other Way Around features a premise that feels like it is bound to be remade as a much less challenging Hollywood drama, if not straight romcom. A Spanish couple who have been married for nearly 15 years have resolved to divorce, and furthermore throw a party celebrating the wife’s father’s theory that it’s better to celebrate the end of a marriage than the beginning of one.
A Toast
Spanish indie director extraordinaire Jonas Trueba delves here into into how a long-term relationship breaking up has a lot of collateral damage, even at the most innocuous and seemingly largely resolved. We see little to none of the conflict that lead to this point, and friends and family alike are all at least initially taken aback at the news (and this party idea that the couple usually introduce right after breaking it).
Don’t think this is some kind of tragic downer, though- it’s a arguably a comedy before a drama, light and funny yet very human. There’s also a fun meta quality- is the filmmaker soon to be ex-wife’s new film about their own breakup? The actor soon to be ex-husband seems to be the lead if not subject of it, and filmmaking equipment intrudes at times in ways that don’t fee organic to the story, but rather the film about that story. Whatever the case, all the elements play excellently with each other. I won’t spoil it, but really like how the party is handled in particular, and the way it sets up the well-earned ending.
Beer Two
The Other Way Around is a bit repetitive at times, but that perhaps makes its point as well, and in fact Trueba maybe even self-critiques in the scene where the wife’s new film is discussed (and accused of the same). Is that Trueba himself as the most obnoxiously critical of the friends invited to the screening?
Verdict
The Other Way Around is a complicated story of the whiplash emotions of unexpected grieving and how it affects our relationships.
