Michael Moore's latest film about the health care industry isn't as angry as it is sad. There's many sad stories in it as there are in others, but Moore doesn't give the HMOs tepid lectures on their evils. Instead it is targeted at the audience, us Americans that support the status quo. Moore spends much time on arguing for a better way (He points out similar systems in Canada, England, France, and even Cuba) and really pleads with us to change our ways.
This is an older, wiser, and more mature Moore. He seems to have realized that he won't change any minds by simply yelling at people. In this way, the failure of Fahrenheit 9/11 has probably touched him greatly. (Failure not in monetary terms, but in its apparent non-influence on the election.) There is more of an emphasis on the people and less on Moore's antics. He provides the voiceover but it isn't him educating us in his usual high and mighty tone. Instead he plays an ignoramous that is constantly getting the wrong answer. There is one scene in a British hospital where he is constantly laughed at. It seems that Moore is softening up a bit to get to more people. I think it may just work. I don't think many people can see this film and think it's just Michael Moore picking on corporations or President Bush again because he hates America. This is his best, and most effective film yet, and if you would recommend one film to a person who has only heard bad things about Moore, show them this one. Show Fahrenheit 9/11 last.
Michael Moore has a great knack for using the right piece of music in the right scene. It was downright poetic when he used the 'Platoon' theme song during a CSPAN congressional hearing when a doctor admitted to letting patients die and getting promoted for it.
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