"Sicko," Michael Moore's documentary about the American healthcare system, starts out with a clever sleight-of-hand. He leads us through a succession of grim vignettes faced by uninsured Americans who were unlucky enough to require medical help they couldn't pay for - then casually tells us this film isn't about them.

Once he has our attention, Moore introduces us to the real subjects of his movie: people with health insurance, jobs, and homes who, like their uninsured brethren, found themselves turned away from the care they needed.

"Sicko" is determined to take the much-talked-about crisis in American healthcare and make it personal. To do that Michael Moore frames his story as a crisis of the middle class. Moore sets out to accomplish two things: to undermine our faith in our health insurance policy and to get us to envy the French.

That he pretty much succeeds at both says a lot about Moore's particular approach to the art of the documentary - to truly appreciate "Sicko" you have to appreciate Michael Moore.

For Republicans this may be asking a lot. If you're of a conservative disposition, even the mention of Michael Moore's name may have an unhappy effect on your blood pressure. It might help to think about Moore using a friendlier frame of reference: Ronald Reagan.

Though they inhabit opposite ends of the political spectrum, as a political storyteller, Michael Moore is Reagan's frumpy love child.

Neither man can be described as an educator. Listen to Moore or Reagan as long as you want but you won't walk away with a more nuanced understanding of the complex issues of the day.

But to take a contentious issue, drain it of its complexity, cherry-pick only those facts that can be sculpted into a seamless, emotionally charged proposition, sugarcoated with a folksy delivery, who can match them? Al Gore? I think not.

It's this ability to weave the miseries of the middle class into an "aw-shucks" polemic that makes "Sicko" so entertaining. Moore has a great instinct for finding images that shake our assumptions. In the case of "Sicko" the prize winner may be a Canadian couple preparing for a trip south to the United States as if we were - at least in terms of health coverage - a Third World country. They plan their portable insurance coverage the way American tourists pack bottled water, afraid of what unhappy fate might befall them if they go native.

Once Moore finds his way to Europe you can tell he's having a lot of fun; zipping around Paris jammed into a sub compact car with a doctor who does house calls and talking to American expatriates who are frankly relieved to be raising their children under more trustworthy government health systems.

Like Reagan before him, Moore's weakness lies in getting carried away with his own stories. "Sicko" finishes with Moore taking a group of 9/11 rescue workers who have been denied healthcare in the States to Cuba where they finally receive the help they desperately need. As political theater it's a grand flourish but it also over reaches. The segment feels exploitative of people who deserve not only medical care but also immense respect.

Whether or not Moore's vision of American healthcare is objective it is undeniably compelling. It is a through-the-looking-glass view of American medicine where the richest nation in the world can't seem to keep up with its neighbors. And for that reason alone it's worth a look.

Directed by Michael Moore

Rated PG-13

(Three Stars)

Bruce Bulloch may be reached via wseditor@robinsonnews.com