Moore offers some compelling, if only incomplete, info on America’s health care struggles.
Sure, Michael Moore is an ego-maniac. I doubt that’s something even his detractors would disagree with. He loves being in the spotlight. Moore also loves to ruffle feathers, and even if you don't agree with his tactics, it’s hard not to agree with (and be amused by) some of his targets.
Moore’s latest documentary is entitled Sicko and the target is American Health Care. Having had my own struggles with health care over the years, this was a topic that immediately piqued my interest. Now, to preface, I’m not the most political guy on the planet. Sure, I have my perspectives, but I don’t believe they have a place in the review of a movie. This review is about how effective Sicko is as a documentary, not whether I politically agree or disagree with Mr. Moore.
In the past, I’ve been a fan of Moore’s work. He’s a very effective 
documentarian. Roger & Me, The Big One, Bowling for Columbine... All compelling works. On the other hand, I felt Fahrenheit 9/11 was more a series of rants designed as a sort of “Fan film” for the already-converted rather than an effective documentary designed to convince those on the fence (or even on the other side of the fence) to see Moore’s perspective.
Although Sicko is a vast improvement over the spotty Fahrenheit, Michael Moore still would have failed my ninth grade debate class. A successful debater always presents the counterpoints and then tries to prove that the positive points they are defending overwhelm the negative points. But somehow, Moore hasn’t really learned this, or perhaps his ego has gotten in the way of his development of a filmmaker (i.e. making more balanced movies). Still, with that said, I enjoyed Sicko. It’s just that if I were less informed, I might have made my plans to go ahead and move to Cuba after exiting the theater.
For the first 30 or more minutes of Sicko, Moore stays behind the camera, which is where he is most effective. He presents a series of “real people” who tell of their horrors dealing with health care in America. Some didn’t have health care at all and some found that their current plans would do just about anything to avoid covering them when they were most in need. The girl who didn’t get “pre-approval” for an ambulance ride is the most amusing. I had a similar issue with a ridiculously overpriced ambulance ride once myself.
When Moore lets these people tell their stories, Sicko is exceptionally compelling. One woman’s tale of her daughter being denied entrance at a hospital and sent to another is positively crushing. The girl died because she did not receive care in time. Another woman’s husband died when his insurance determined he was too low on the list to receive an “experimental” treatment. If you can watch these moments and not find yourself a little watery-eyed, well then, you’re a tougher man than I.
After these tales, Moore enters the film and the rest of Sicko centers around a tour of other countries and their comparative health care systems. He goes to Canada, England, France and, finally, Havana, Cuba. This is also the point where Sicko offers its most incomplete points. All of these foreign health care systems are presented as virtual utopias. Doctors are friendly despite lower pay, no one waits in lines, there’s no bill at the end and everyone is treated like a king. Of course, there are other sides to this, especially in Cuba where, to put it lightly, there are some rather compelling downsides to Havana life.
It’s interesting hearing other perspectives on these points made by Moore 
because, in essence, he is only presenting his perspective and manipulating that perspective to such a point as to almost be construed as fiction.
Visiting my barber after the screening, he told me about his Canadian friend who, when faced with a necessary surgery to save his life, traveled over the border to the U.S. When asked why, he responded simply that he “needed the surgery now” and risked dying should he wait for his turn on a lengthy waiting list back in Canada.
Moore mostly plays the viewpoints of these other health care systems for humor’s sake. And yes, some of it is pretty funny. France provides a baby nurse for new mothers who not only cares for the baby, but even helps the new mother with little tasks around the house like cooking dinner and laundry. The laundry becomes a running joke for the rest of the movie, with Moore referring to how he’d like to see the U.S. Government do his laundry.
Sicko is an entertaining movie. Real people telling their stories is compelling to watch. Seeing more evidence of how evil health care companies are is fascinating, even if it isn’t necessarily a surprise. As pure entertainment, I recommend Sicko. It offers a glimpse into the issues facing American health care and presents some alternative systems. And while making the changes needed to improve our own health care is clearly a far more complicated issue than Moore makes it out to be, Sicko is important in the respect that it brings these issues to the forefront and will spurn new and (let’s hope) positive changes.
ReelzChannel Rating: 