Sicko

Grade: A-

Michael Moore is an American hero.

Whether skewering corporate greed, making the case for stronger gun laws, or passionately condemning George Bush for the Iraq war, Moore is a national treasure and a whistle-blower of the first order.

Admittedly, it is often painfully frustrating to sit through a Michael Moore documentary since – the last time I checked – corporate greed continues to flourish, the NRA continues to own Congress, and John Kerry, well…don’t even get me started.

But Moore is an indignant laser beam of light, and his films make such passionate, irrefutable cases for change that one can’t help but hope the Capitol morons and White House evil-doers in our midst will finally get clued in and do some things that are actually in the best interest of the country.

As someone whose work is intimately connected to the inadequacies of health care, there is little in Moore’s latest expose that comes as much of a surprise. While impossible to depart Fahrenheit 9/11 without a knife-in-the-gut sense of moral outrage, here Moore further elucidates what most of us already know – HMOs are all about profit over health, socialized medicine is superior to our own system and anyone who says differently is either ignorant, blindly patriotic or lying for profit, and our elected officials do nothing to improve things because they are in the back pocket of the health care lobby. As in most of Moore’s movies, the Republicans may win the booby prize, but not even Democrats like Hillary Clinton come away unscathed – if anything, they are judged more harshly because they actually know better but remain silent. One cannot help but come away feeling utterly disgusted by the lack of leadership and stunning cowardice that permeates this season’s roster of Democratic Presidential hopefuls, who won’t go near the hot potato that is health care reform with a ten foot stethoscope.

But I digress.

In typical Moore style, we meet a parade of individuals whose lives have been shattered by the health care system. But Moore’s brilliance lies in the fact that, rather than focusing on the 50 million Americans without health insurance, he chooses to focus on the 250 million of us poor suckers who do, and whose lives have been devastated regardless. Health care plans that deny coverage for life-saving treatments, as told to us by the survivors of those the system murdered. Hospitals refusing to treat children on the brink of death because they weren’t properly affiliated with the right insurance carrier. Bureaucrats whose sole job it is to find pre-existing conditions or a form with a misplaced checkmark that will enable companies to deny coverage. With his unique mixture of smartly manipulative pathos and often belly-laughing humor, the absurdity of it all will simultaneously chagrin and upset the hell out of you – it’s what Moore does better than anyone.

Sidetrips to Canada, England, France and, yes, even Cuba – socialized medicine nations all – can’t help but make you want to pack your bags and leave on a jet plane. A Canadian couple takes out health insurance because they’re coming to the U.S. for a single day and fear what might happen to them if they get hurt on our shores. An incredulous Brit giggles into the camera because she can’t quite comprehend the concept of paying to have her baby delivered. A cashier has been set up in a hospital not to collect payment but to reimburse patients for travel expenses, and a doctor is paid more money for every patient whose blood pressure he helps lower and every smoker he helps kick the habit. Every argument we’ve heard ad infinitum about the perils of socialized medicine Moore deftly flicks off his shoulder for the money-grubbing propaganda it is.

No Michael Moore film would be complete without some unnecessary schtickiness and some self-important overreaching. Over-acted 1950’s advertising footage that runs throughout the film gets very old very quickly, a 15-minute side trip comparing France’s daycare, college education system and vacation policies to ours is a detracting diversion that borders on America-bashing just for the fun of it, and an analysis about why American politicians like to keep our poorest citizens in a constant state of fear and disempowerment comes across as more than a little trite. Moore still over-inserts himself into the story (although somewhat less than in previous films) and – especially in a boat trip to Guantanamo Bay where accused terrorists are receiving better health care than many of our 9/11 heroes – Moore inserts comedic skits where the facts should be allowed to speak for themselves.

But, when one of those heroes begins to cry upon discovering that the nebulizers that help her breathe and cost her hundreds of uncovered dollars in the U.S. run about 5 cents a piece in Cuba, Moore yet again establishes himself as a truth-teller and advocate for our times.
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More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0386032/