The Art of Negative Thinking (2006)

Thanks for the memories!

Such a frustrating disappointment

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

As Good As It Gets

And we are supposed to feel fine about it. This black comedy is a stranger comes to town story (although in this case the community comes to the stranger, since he is housebound through grief after suffering a spinal cord injury) that capitalizes on the bad-behavior genre. The violence and cruelty in the movie -- there is a surprising amount of violence, although it results in very little gore -- express a universal urge to rage against bad luck, and this is the pleasure viewers are supposed to derive from watching. Unfortunately, in this pre-#MeToo movie, this violence is overwhelmingly directed at a woman. The woman who receives this violence is one of four able-bodied characters, and, as the facilitator of a support group for people with disabilities, she represents authority. She also represents the system and the vapidity of mainstream culture, which is a substantial narrative stretch, since people who work in care are almost always disadvantaged women. To cover this stretch, she is presented as the author of a book about the group that has just been accepted for publication. This plot point touches on interesting issues about representation of illness and disability, but, like the issue of suffering as competition also raised by the movie, the treatment is confusing and unresolved. At some points, the group members are shown as collaborators, and at others, victims of exploitation. The other women in the movie come in for a lot of abuse, too; the long-suffering girlfriend, the group member whose suffers a mental illness rather than a physical disability, and the woman with quadriplegia function primarily as sexual objects. Their agency is limited to providing sexual access. The men in the movie don't benefit from this; their agency is limited to sexual performance, and this, it seems, is the real problem of the badly-behaving hero stranger. In this film, the men's violence stands in for sexual performance; by battering a woman, they demonstrate they still have some agency. Bigger issues about loneliness and guilt are raised in the process of farcical sexual pursuit, but, like the suffering-as-competition and disability-porn themes, they aren't explored with any depth. Instead, the badly-behaving hero is cast as redeemer, and the narrative ends with the perplexing message that deliverance comes in the form of a wealthy white man with a big gun, booze and weed. The long-suffering girlfriend rides off into the sunset (sunrise, in this case) with the stranger, who has, one hopes, finally realized clinical potency isn't required for sex. Farce and loose threads aren't problems. The ambiguity and dominant theme of moral anarchic catharsis would be enjoyable if it weren't for the sexist framing of the violence in this film. The assaults endured by the group facilitator are simply too realistic, too close to the harassment and abuse endured by women in all kinds of workplaces, particularly care work, to fall under black comedy. This film literally gave me nightmares, and will give nightmares to many women who have experienced sexual, verbal, emotional and verbal assault of the kind that has been overlooked or trivialized.

I recently saw this at the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival and of the 38 films I saw there this year, the Art of Negative Thinking has emerged as my film favorite. Fist of all, this is a small film shot in 20 days with little obvious budget. Almost the entire film is filmed on location in a house and besides the cast, the most expensive overhead was probably the rights to use Johnny Cash and some other great 60's 70's music and some snippets of a few movies. This is a dark comedy and the comedy is very, very funny and it's usually unexpected and right around the corner throughout the film. What makes this film all the more amazing is it is the debut feature film from it's writer/director Bård Breien both as a writer and as a director. Geirr (Fridtjov Såheim) is a paraplegic whose once idyllic life of matrimonial bliss to Ingvild (Kirsti Eline Torhaug) has been shattered by his paralysis. Ingvild wants to stay with him but Geirr has withdrawn from her and the world and spends his days watching 1970's Vietnam themed films on TV and listening to Johnny Cash records while he gets drunk and smokes pot, living on pizza, wearing an Army jacket and a silly cap and harboring an unhealthy fascination with handguns. Tori (Kjersti Holmen) is a national health psychologist who is the head of a state run positivity group program for victims of paralysis. Ingvild has contracted Tori to try to enroll Geirr in her program and since Gierr is naturally resistant to the idea, Tori takes her group to him. Marte (Marian Saastad Otteson) is a quadriplegic who is Tori's star pupil in positive thinking. Gard (Henrik Mestad) is Marte's boyfriend who has joined the group in support of Marte. Asbjørn (Per Schaaning) is a once successful businessman who as the result of stress and alcoholism suffered a debilitating stroke. Lillemar wears a neck brace for sympathy but is a bitter 65 year old divorcée. This is a great ensemble cast with each a memorable character. This is one of those films that makes me laugh days and weeks after seeing it. I would give this a 10 out of 10 and highly recommend it.

This movie is actually very special. Not many movies have been this straight forward and cut through THAT much bullshit when it comes to people feeling sorry for themselves. Finally a movie that doesn't walk the straight line where an overly positive person makes everything better or an overly negative person destroys everything. In this movie the the two different ends meet and wreaks havoc. The movie was shot in 20 days and that is quite astonishing..they punch through a wall or two when it comes to taboo areas and in an intelligent and interesting way. If you're gonna watch a Norwegian movie this year or the next I would recommend you see this. It has a lot of fantastic funny moments and if you like the Danish movie FESTEN or the American movie RUNNING WITH SCISSORS you will surely like this one. I'm not a big fan of Norwegian movies, but this one actually has a nerve that most movies lack...what nerve is that? Just go and see it.. :)

what you might expect when entering the theaters for this movie is a sad little feel-sorry movie from ice-cold Norway. I mean, how can a movie with handicapped people be any fun? well, lets start with the colourful ensemble of characters in this movie. first there's of course geirr, an impotent wheelchair bound master of the negative, that looks like he's been to Vietnam and back a dozen times, who compensates his lack of "drive" with a ridiculously large handgun. there's also a rebellious grandmother, a stroke-victim, a paralyzed woman with a grin plastered firmly on her face, and a cast of control-freak "healthy" people. mix this together, and you have a healthy dose of facades being torn down for some self-destructive letting lose. its a fresh breath of air amidst the dreary number of gangster wannabe movies thats been pouring out of norwegian cinemas.as a bonus on the DVD, you get a small movie about a thug with a bad back filmed in a documentary-style manner, which is also worth a watch.another glittering gem in Norways collection of weird little movies.