Overall Rating
  Awesome: 50%
Worth A Look: 33.82%
Average: 10.29%
Pretty Bad: 1.47%
Total Crap: 4.41%
7 reviews, 26 user ratings
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| Sicko |
by William Goss
"What's Up, Doc?"
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I’m worried for Michael Moore. Sure, 'Sicko' starts out with a typical Bush blunder for laughs, but within minutes, he offers up the sobering image of several generations of a family forced together under a single roof by the most unfortunate of circumstances and unlikely of coincidences, and tears are being (understandably) shed. No one denies that Moore is all about skewing the scene in the name of getting a point across, but really, is he about to jerk our heartstrings with images of sobbing children and grandparents?The answer is, only a little. Although a hard first impression to shake, no other moment in his expose of American healthcare reeks of such self-service. Soon enough, Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine) is back to his wily ways, offering anecdotes from those suffering Stateside from a failed system and from those elsewhere who so very greatly benefit from socialized medicine. For about forty-five minutes, he thankfully remains off-camera, offering instead a mixture of his trademark sardonic narration and the horror stories of American citizens having to comparison shop when replacing severed digits, or of those who failed to pre-approve an ambulance ride whilst unconscious. He examines HMOs, from Nixon to now, and their various means of screwing their clients out of proper treatment: early on, a Star Wars scroll of conditions speed by, all of which can disqualify applicants from receiving coverage, and former employees eventually confess a variety of guilty truths they can no longer bear (“You’re swept through the cracks. Someone made that crack and swept you through it.”).
And then Mr. Moore takes center stage as he takes off for England, France, and Canada in an effort to show how national healthcare can and does work for the greater good. While it is undoubtedly admirable to see him trying to provide a well-rounded solution for the problems he’s tackling this time around, his repeated inquiries and incredulous reactions to the seemingly saintly service one gets beyond our borders grow increasingly weary and redundant, as if he’s stalling for time by giving viewers the easy answers over and over again instead of struggling to get the right ones back home.
Even back home, there’s a striking favor of anecdotes to statistics, with Moore relying on enough truthiness to make Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A. proud. Yeah, there might be four times as many lobbyists as there are members of Congress, but that won’t stick as much as the description and then image of a woman being abandoned by cab outside of a shelter for unpaid hospital bills. Sicko then culminates with the infamous arrival of Moore and several 9/11 volunteer rescue workers off the shores of Guantanamo Bay, and as much good eventually comes from it (refused treatment at home and at Gitmo, they are subsequently treated with the utmost care at a Havana hospital), it still reeks of a stunt pulled for the cameras, regardless of whoever pulls it and perhaps especially because it’s Moore doing so.For all of his concern for his country, Moore’s attitude, now more than ever, ends up undermining his ultimately compassionate goals. However, while 'Sicko' may not say it all regarding the plight of US healthcare, it says enough, and I can still respect it as a call to action, a cry to arms, however shrill the voice or tactless the tone.
link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=16229&reviewer=409
originally posted: 07/08/07 13:03:47
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USA
22-Jun-2007 (PG-13)
DVD: 06-Nov-2007
UK
N/A
Australia
09-Aug-2007
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