Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Michael Moore, George W Bush, Reggie Cervantes,
John Graham, William Maher, Richard Nixon, Linda Peeno
Produced by Michael Moore, Kathleen Glynn, Anne Moore,
Meghan O'Hara, Harvey Weinstein & Bob Weinstein
Certification UK 12A | US PG-13 | Australia PG
Runtime 113 minutes
Written & directed by Michael Moore
Michael Moore is back. No, really he is. Sicko, his latest documentary, is a colossal return to form for the crumpled Mr M. He's left the soft-targets of Bowling For Columbine and, to some extent, Fahrenheit 9/11 behind, and instead lets the unmassaged facts speak for themselves. Bowling For Columbine was Moore's nadir, frankly. He took a vital subject and undermined the damning evidence in favour of snappy soundbites. As for doorstepping an 80-year-old with Alzheimer's... well, the less said about that the better. Yes, I know Charlton Heston has set his stall out by endorsing the NRA, but even so. The bottom line? Moore is better than that and making a senile old man look, well, senile was a cheap shot.
With Sicko however, Moore gets back to basics and — best of all — takes a back seat to his subjects. As he states early on, in a slightly annoying voiceover directed at an American audience (and there was us thinking his audience was mostly European...), the film is not aimed at those US citizens who don't have health insurance. Hell, they and we know they're screwed. No, the film is aimed at those who have medical cover because, frankly, they're screwed as well. Sicko is a look at the way in which hugely wealthy insurance companies stay hugely wealthy by taking premiums and finding all sorts of creative ways not to pay out. For example, a woman who was knocked unconscious in a car crash who later had to pay for her ambulance because 'it hadn't been prearanged'. That, inevitably, is the tip of the iceberg that Moore reveals. After probing such company policies and showing American business to be run by a group of money-grabbing evil bastards (hands up who's surprised. Anyone?), Moore then takes great delight in contrasting the US system to other countries.
This is the point where British viewers will find Moore's outlook surprisingly rose-tinted, and the only point where he gets a little heavy-handed. Do we really need around 15 people explaining their operations and treatment in British hospitals and the fact that, no, actually, they didn't pay for the treatment (well, other than via taxes and stuff, but that's presumably not important right now)? That, though, is pretty much the only fault in this otherwise highly engaging and very pointed documentary, mostly because it takes the film to an unwieldy two hours when 90 minutes would have lost nothing of note and kept it razor sharp. Still, regardless of flaws, this is Moore's best work since TV Nation and that's definitely something to celebrate.