I did not know quite what to make of this film as I started to watch it. The opening scene of evidently able-bodied actors playing disabled characters should have been a red flag. It was clear from the beginning that this was a film satirising mindfulness, therapy sessions, and the like and I admit, this part of the film did get some chuckles out of me, but the rest...oh dear.
The film tells the story of a man who is adapting to being a wheelchair user and a disability support group comes over to his house on the request of his partner. In this respect, it being set in one location with a small cast, and with a running time of just over an hour, it felt very much like a play. As it happens, it was adapted for the stage in the Czech Republic in 2010.
Quite possibly every negative stereotype about disabled people was played out during the course of the film: there is no possibility of fulfilling intimacy, disabled people want to kill themselves, and worst of all: creating a hierarchy of whose-disability-is-the-worst, and you-should-be-thankful-you-don't-have-this-disability, declaring they should be thankful they're not in such and such a character's shoes.
As another reviewer pointed out, the sexual violence towards the chairwoman of group makes for incredibly uncomfortable watching. She is an insufferable character (as are most of them), manipulative and controlling. It is obviously a slapstick, dark comedy complete with people falling out of windows, and crockery and punches being thrown about thrown left right and centre, but having sexual violence just seem like just another ingredient in this genre leaves a sour taste in the mouth, as does the butt of the joke always being disability and how miserable disabled people's lives must be.
The Art of Thinking Negatively could have been just about permissible had it come from a disabled writer/director, but as it stands, it feels like an incredibly insensitive and empty exploration of adjusting to a life with a disability.
The film tells the story of a man who is adapting to being a wheelchair user and a disability support group comes over to his house on the request of his partner. In this respect, it being set in one location with a small cast, and with a running time of just over an hour, it felt very much like a play. As it happens, it was adapted for the stage in the Czech Republic in 2010.
Quite possibly every negative stereotype about disabled people was played out during the course of the film: there is no possibility of fulfilling intimacy, disabled people want to kill themselves, and worst of all: creating a hierarchy of whose-disability-is-the-worst, and you-should-be-thankful-you-don't-have-this-disability, declaring they should be thankful they're not in such and such a character's shoes.
As another reviewer pointed out, the sexual violence towards the chairwoman of group makes for incredibly uncomfortable watching. She is an insufferable character (as are most of them), manipulative and controlling. It is obviously a slapstick, dark comedy complete with people falling out of windows, and crockery and punches being thrown about thrown left right and centre, but having sexual violence just seem like just another ingredient in this genre leaves a sour taste in the mouth, as does the butt of the joke always being disability and how miserable disabled people's lives must be.
The Art of Thinking Negatively could have been just about permissible had it come from a disabled writer/director, but as it stands, it feels like an incredibly insensitive and empty exploration of adjusting to a life with a disability.