SiCKO (2007)

Subject: Michael Moore takes a look at how insured Americans are buried under health care costs.

One of my fellow moviegoers was quick to point out how much more focused this movie was than some of Moore's other efforts, and I have to agree. The first one I saw, Bowling for Columbine, took school shootings and spiraled it out into a look at gun culture and violence in America as a societal ill. Now, three years after the incendiary Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore is back, but it isn't the same. It's quieter around here and decidedly more depressing.

I do like how Moore skipped over those who don't even have insurance to look at those who do and get screwed anyway. From a couple who have to move into their daughter's storage room to 79 year-old man who works as a janitor at a grocery store to 9/11 rescue workers who aren't covered because they volunteered, Moore certainly knows how to collect the right stories to tug at heartstrings and prick the tear ducts.

Yesterday, after I screened this doc, my only complaint would have been that it is a bit sluggish in spots and that one asshole move he pulls (you'll see what I mean). Today, as I reflect on the time he spent in my hometown of Sarnia, I find a lot more complaints springing to mind. He paints Canada, with our universal health care, as a socialist utopia. Sarnia has the greatest disparity between doctors and patients of any city in Ontario. You can have chemo in Sarnia, but you have to travel to London, at least an hour away, for radiation. AIDS tests are sent out to Toronto.

Even so, I know we are better off with what we've got, so I can't hold these flaws against him. Documentaries aren't like non-fiction books: they don't have the space or time to explore every issue or all the angles. What Moore's doing here is only meant to be an eye opener. With the time he's allotted, he's got to paint with broad strokes, and he does that exceedingly well. It's one light in a deep pit, but it burns brightly enough. Plus he introduced me to former parliamentarian Tony Benn, and I have a total intellectual crush on him now. B+