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Negative thinking never seemed so good

From left: Synnove Horsdal, Bard Breien, Fridtjov Saheim and Marian Saastad Ottesen are all smiles now.  PHOTO: EPA

With his coal-black comedy The Art of Negative Thinking, Norwegian director Bard Breien gleefully eviscerates the phony-baloney, "feel good" psychoanalytic babble that is so often hurled thoughtlessly at the severely disabled. Breien's main character, National Health Psychologist Tori (Kjersti Holmen), embodies this approach. All optimistic saccharine on the surface, but a steamroller underneath, she refuses to tolerate any pessimism, cynicism, depression or anxiety from her patients. The latter include: gorgeous Marta, a mountain climber almost completely paralyzed from a fall; her troubled paramour Gard (Henrik Mestad), grappling with guilt thanks to his direct responsibility for the accident; Lillemor (Kari Simonsen), a shrill and obnoxious, sexagenarian divorcee saddled with a neck brace and constantly tossed the "shit bag" in therapy - a tea cozy used as a means of disposal for her complaints; and Asbjorn (Per Schaaning), a stroke victim. All of these patients can deal with Tori's positivism - more or less. But not so with Geirr (Fridtjov Saheim), a paraplegic from an accident who spends his days drowning himself in booze, chain-smoking cigarettes, and listening to depressing Johnny Cash ballads. When Geirr's wife learns of Tori's methods and decides to bring the good doctor to the house to help rehabilitate her husband, it sets the stage for a battle of positive versus negative thinking, that threatens to explode into full-scale cataclysm.
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