The Art of Negative Thinking centres on a bitter man confined to a wheelchair after an accident being forced by his wife to join a council-funded positivity group for the disabled. This he recoils at violently, but the insufferably dogmatic group leader piles all the participants into his house regardless, and an evening ensues that degenerates into drunken mayhem and recriminations.
Yes, you may think, so far so Nordic, but the Norwegians as a whole aren't traditionally quite as guilty of wallowing in depression as their two neighbours to the east and there is a sense of lust for life underlying it that offsets the bleakness to some extent. And even though it's palpable that it's stumbling towards some kind of unlikely positive message through all the wreckage, at least the turns it takes on the way aren't wholly predictable and its portrayal of the disabled is refreshingly unsentimental.
6/10
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