The Waiting Room

Name: The Waiting Room
Genre: Documentary
Released: September 28, 2012
Duration: 81 min
Rating: 84

2012

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Universal acclaim based on 12 Critic Reviews

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The Waiting Room

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Movie Details & Credits

International Film Circuit | Release Date: September 28, 2012 | Not Rated

Summary: The Waiting Room uses unprecedented access to go behind the doors of Oakland’s Highland Hospital, a safety-net hospital fighting for survival while weathering the storm of a persistent economic downturn. Stretched to the breaking point, Highland is the primary care facility for 250,000 patients of nearly every nationality, race, andThe Waiting Room uses unprecedented access to go behind the doors of Oakland’s Highland Hospital, a safety-net hospital fighting for survival while weathering the storm of a persistent economic downturn. Stretched to the breaking point, Highland is the primary care facility for 250,000 patients of nearly every nationality, race, and religion, with 250 patients – most of them uninsured – crowding its emergency room every day. Using a blend of cinema verité and characters’ voiceover, the film offers a raw, intimate, and often uplifting look at how patients, staff and caregivers cope with disease, bureaucracy, frustration, hope and hard choices during one typically hectic day. (International Film Circuit)… Expand

Director: Peter Nicks

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 81 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Ann Hornaday

Nov 30, 2012

With grace, discretion and supreme tact, Nicks sweeps viewers to a climactic montage that wordlessly honors the best ways we care for one another. The Waiting Room bears poetic witness to an overlooked fact: America's health care system may be broken, but its people are anything but. Read full review

100

Stephen Holden

Sep 25, 2012

Scrupulously apolitical, The Waiting Room is the opposite of a polemic like Michael Moore's "Sicko." But by removing any editorial screen, it confronts you head-on with human suffering that a more humane and equitable system might help alleviate. Read full review

100

Mick LaSalle

Oct 18, 2012

This is human drama at its most intense and universal. This is the rare film that can change the way you think and see the world. Read full review

Boxoffice Magazine Sara Maria Vizcarrondo

Sep 24, 2012

There's more to it than a black-and-white political conclusion, and the laundry list of California documentary heroes in the credits suggests this film is humanist before it's agenda driven. Read full review

Andrew O'Hehir

Sep 28, 2012

The Waiting Room is a source of both inspiration and hope. The system may be broken, but the people are not. Read full review

Elise Nakhnikian

Sep 26, 2012

Documents emotionally charged interactions between patients and hospital staff without any signs that the subjects are being made to feel self-conscious or that they're behavior is being affected. Read full review

Keith Uhlich

Sep 25, 2012

The documentary's scope feels a bit small overall - more concerned with capturing the episodic adventures of these disparate subjects than with connecting their experiences to larger societal ills. Read full review

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TVJerry

Mar 3, 2013

Just when I finished reading the 30+ page TIME article about our broken medical system, I go see this movie. It's a very verite look at a public hospital's ER department. People spend hours, even days, waiting for medical help (more like a free clinic that an ER). Most of them don't haveJust when I finished reading the 30+ page TIME article about our broken medical system, I go see this movie. It's a very verite look at a public hospital's ER department. People spend hours, even days, waiting for medical help (more like a free clinic that an ER). Most of them don't have insurance and many don't have jobs. Meanwhile, the staff patiently and empathetically tries to deal with the backlog. While only 2 stories are followed in detail, there are glimpses of many more…and this is one of the film's flaws. It shows a mass of problems without solutions, preaching or emotional investment. It effectively spotlights the issue, but doesn't make for especially moving cinema.… Expand

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