Die Kunst des negativen Denkens

This was a mistake. The worst Scandi-movie ever. Unfunny, uninteresting, repulsive, boring with unlikeable characters and weird dialogue. I haven't seen such a bad film in a long time, and it made me downright angry with its existence. 2/10. (06.02.2020)

Contradictory just like the central theme. Tragicomedy as a parallel to the alternating spasmodic positivism and natural negativism is a great idea and the actors can excel in perfectly fitting roles, but somewhat surprisingly, the initially pleasant unpredictability gradually started to annoy me. After twenty minutes, I realized that practically anything can happen in every subsequent moment. It pleases me twice, thrice, but soon every unexpected outburst of emotions seemed like unnecessary hysteria. 70% rounded down precisely because the final catharsis suffers from these constant changes. (21.01.2011)

A bitter tragicomedy about the sad fate of the physically disabled, about obligatory optimism, and about how sometimes things just don't work. The main character is confined to a wheelchair after a car accident and although he doesn't suffer financially thanks to insurance, he is full of bitterness and hatred toward his surroundings. His desperate partner decides to break his lethargy and self-pity with the help of a therapist and her group of patients and bring him back to life. However, throughout the movie, it seems that Geirr rather breaks the painstakingly built cohesion of the group, which actually isn't that cohesive, and beneath its surface, there are smoldering fires and a lot of negative emotions. I expected something in the style of As Good as It Gets with Jack Nicholson, a stylized spectacle full of black humor, but the level of inappropriateness and unfiltered pain caught me off guard. Several scenes are truly powerful, and the film fairly reflects the hopeless situation of the disabled. On the other hand, compared to the course of the film, its culmination is somewhat forcibly reconciliatory. Overall impression: 85%. Although humor appears in several moments, it is the darkest, purely gallows variant. (04.01.2010)

Lots of tragedy, lots of black humor, lots of comedy. (30.07.2010)

Gesehen bei der Challenge Tour 2015: 30 Tage mit internationaler Kinematografie. Film Nummer 26 - Norwegen. Ich muss wohl feststellen, dass ich doch etwas mehr erwartet habe. Dem Film ging ein außerordentlich starkes Renommee voraus, und ich habe mich auf ein klassisches skandinavisches Psychomassaker sehr gefreut. Ein paar starke Szenen und ein paar mit schwarzem Humor werden sich sicher finden lassen, doch das ist noch kein Stich ins Herz. Ein sehr gutes Schauspiel, aber nicht absolute Spitze. ich denke, die Theateradaption kann stärker wirken und den Schauspielern eine ideale Gelegenheit bieten hervorzustechen. Das Švanda-Theater ruft... (25.04.2015)

It's a Nordic raw drama with intense emotions that doesn't sugarcoat anything and shows that one should not give up even when facing life's biggest challenges. It took me a very long time to get over the rather wacky style of humor, but I eventually came to like it, as well as the story revolving around a group of people disappointed by twists of fate. (75%) (23.11.2021)