Sicko came out in a particularly upsetting time in my life. I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2005. Two years later, my health was so unreliable that it was a major reason my family chose to close the doors on the business we'd owned and operated for twenty years. No single topic has dominated my daily life these last eight years more than the vulnerability of the sick and injured in America. Not even Batman.

Michael Moore is still prone to theatrics - witness his stunt trip in the finale to Cuba - but there's a decidedly lighter touch here than in Bowling for Columbine or Fahrenheit 9/11. There's a lot less mockery, less spiking the football. Moore's focus is on telling the stories of ordinary people, and on asking questions - some, he seeks to answer; others, he asks us to contemplate on our own.

Perhaps the most fascinating section of the film to watch as we near the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") is the montage of American conservatives decrying "socialized medicine". It's almost surreal to hear the exact same talking points parroted throughout those several minutes as have inundated our TV, radio and websites throughout the last five years. "The more things change..." I suppose.

Moore has a clearer focus here than in the other films of his that I've seen. There are fewer balls in the air. Any number of subtopics could merit an entire documentary all their own, but for the most part he surveys the key parts of the material at least well enough to establish relevance and connect the dots. Still, there are shortcomings.

Moore covers, for instance, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2005 without clearly explaining how it works (or doesn't, as the case is). Moore tells us it was a cash grab bill penned by Big Pharma, but goes no further into the matter.

Critics hone in on Moore's fawning over the "freebies" in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Cuba. I'll concede that he does go off-topic. State-sponsored nannies in France are enviable, but the presentation there just feels like showing off. There are legitimate concerns about each of those countries, all of which deserve more in-depth analysis than the average documentary could reasonably be expected to provide - especially one that's simply surveying things. Still, it's telling that one of the dominant reactions was to throw hands over ears and yell, "Lalalalalalalalalala!" instead of even considering how we might adapt some of the things that work elsewhere.

I applauded Moore's final questions, asking how come we Americans are so keen to swipe things from other countries if they do something well, but why we've had such a rough time making any meaningful progress with healthcare. I would add a follow-up question: If our system is as great as the people getting richer by the minute from it want us to believe it is...why haven't more countries followed our lead and privatized their healthcare systems?

Moore gets at this a few times, most notably in his interview with former Member of Parliament Tony Benn, who categorically rejects the very idea of dismantling the National Health Service as being off-limits for anyone of any party. (It's been under attack through these intervening years as opportunists have actually tried to exploit the effects of the global economical meltdown of 2008, but that, too, is a matter for further discussion elsewhere).

Speaking of Benn, the Special Edition DVD bonus feature includes more of their sit down interview, and it's terrific. I just wish it was anamorphic instead of pillar boxed (as are all the other bonus clips). It's dizzying, but brilliant. Also worth viewing are "Who Would Jesus Deny?" and "An Interview with Marcia Angell, M.D., Author of The Truth About the Drug Companies". The latter is particularly interesting to watch through the hindsight of the Obamacare battles.

Also, on a personal note, perhaps my greatest pet peeve throughout the whole healthcare debate era has been the canard about how terrible it would be to have a government bureaucrat interfering with the medical decisions made between physician and patient. Most of the film is dedicated to pointing out how insurance bean counters - including their hatchet men - already do that, but I would have liked to have seen Moore ask a doctor how it feels to have insurers tie their hands.

Sicko Re-Ranked on My Flickchart (#586/1597)

Sicko > The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad --> #586
Sicko > Far and Away --> #400
Sicko > Transformers: Dark of the Moon --> #200
Sicko < Lady and the Tramp --> #200
Sicko < Marie Antoinette --> #200
Sicko < Open Water --> #200
Sicko < Harvey --> #200
Sicko > This Is 40 --> #192
Sicko > From Hell --> #189
Sicko < Watchmen --> #189

Sicko was re-ranked on my Flickchart to #189/1597