Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

ms_otis_regrets 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.

sirkevinho1 Very few movies are made about disabled people. It seems to be a taboo area that few filmmakers are willing to venture into, as they do not want to make a tearjerker propaganda film that manipulates people's feelings or appear to be too insensitive about the issue. This film does neither; instead, through realistic characters, it takes the honest approach and allows the audiences to examine the characters and understand how they feel without the filmmakers help. Thus, it makes the film enticing and provocative.The film examines the different degrees and dimensions of both physical and emotional disability and how it affects those around them. It shows how some people are down on themselves and refuse to improve or become worst than they are. It shows how those disabled can increase pressure and frustration on those closest to them, and vice-versa, how those closest to them can cause them pain and suffering, even if they had the best of intentions. Finally, it shows that acceptance, both the disabled and those around them, is a process. It takes time and patience; if one does not have the patience, it is better off if that person leaves.One thing to take away from this film, as it offers a great lesson: there must be a balance between positive and negative thinking. Being too positive and smiling all the time might not be such a good tactic in life. Just look at Marte. She tries to be positive in order to protect her partner's feelings; instead, he feels very guilty and does not appreciate her efforts. However, at the same time, being too negative will only sent one into depression, as Lillemor demonstrates. She is rather healthy, but because she is so down on herself, she thinks she is no better than the disabled people she associates with. Therefore, in the end, one must be both positive and negative. This way, a person would be able to examine the reality of the situation and have the courage to move forward.8/10

Chris Knipp Breien's film about handicapped people is a corrective. It mocks programs that offer false cheer, repress the need to express anger, and don't give people who need to do so the right to take things in their own hands.Things get lively as soon as Tori (Kjersti Holmen),a smug therapist who works for the Norwegian state health system, takes her group of variously dysfunctional folks in a van to the house of Geirr (Fridtjov Såheim), a wheelchair bound man who's refused to join the program. If she thinks she's going to win Geirr over, she's got another think coming. As we see before the group arrives, Geirr, who's paraplegic and impotent from a car accident, doesn't get along with his wife Ingvild (Kirsti Eline Torhaug) and likes to spend his time getting high, drinking beer, listening to Johnny Cash albums and watching war movies.Tori has brought quite a motley crew. There's Lillemor (Kari Simonsen), a middle aged divorced woman in a neck brace. Marta (Marian Saastad Ottesen) is a pretty woman. She is paraplegic too, from a mountaineering accident. Gard (Henrik Mestad) is her self-righteous, self-pitying boyfriend. Asbjorn (Per Schaaning) is an older man who is seriously damaged by a stroke and can hardly speak. Tori imposes a regime of forced cheer. It's obviously gone too far with Marta, who wears a fixed rictus smile. Lillemor is perpetually whining. She gets to voice her complaints into the knitted "shit bag," which Tori passes to people who want to say something uncheerful.Ingvild has invited the group over because she can't take Geirr's withdrawn grumpiness much longer and is desperately hoping they can get through to him. The surprise is that it's he who gets through to them. Geirr doesn't want anybody to try to tell him that things are okay for him. By shaking up the group and expelling Tori and encouraging the others to admit what's really going on inside or alternately dropping their facades of self-pity, Geirr releases a swoosh of energy in the group that flows back to him. It turns out he's a pretty together fellow. He becomes the leader--and the exponent of The Art of Negative Thinking. The group helps him by pointing out that of all of them, he's materially the best off. He lives in a big, beautiful house, while some of them are struggling to survive financially. Others also reveal what else is going on with them, that Tori's bossiness had kept from coming out. Marta stops smiling long enough to point out to Gard that his failing to tie her off is why she fell. On the other hand he needs to stop agonizing over that and move forward. Lillimor doesn't really need the neck brace. Asbjorn gets so involved in the proceedings, which involve some useful drunken revels, that he regains some of his power of speech. In time Tori is allowed back to apologize and the air has been cleared.The solutions the group, with Geirr, arrive at relate to 12-step recovery, which assumes as a given that people must help themselves and you don't know what it's like unless you've been there yourself. Nobody who hasn't dealt with the minute to minute hardships of being disabled has the right to tell handicapped people to keep their chin up. You have to acknowledge the dark side to get to the light. When being honest is the prime requisite it also comes clear who has been faking and who can get a lot better fast if they try.But this isn't some kind of instructional film. It's a somewhat theatrical happening, whose improvisational surprises at times suggest the work of Lars von Trier. The actors manage to seem real and at the same time somewhat stylized.This is a nice little film that somehow seems ideally a product of the angst-ridden world of the Scandinavian northland. But a lot of what goes on here is universal, and by no means restricted to the handicapped--or to Norwegians.Seen as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival 2008.

Golgothae 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.. :)