The Waiting Room
International Film Circuit | Release Date: September 28, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 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
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 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
100
The New York TimesStephen HoldenSep 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
91
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinSep 26, 2012
Director Peter Nicks puts faces, names, and heartbreakingly relatable stories to a social problem that can all too often feel abstract and academic. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisNov 29, 2012
The movie observes the general misery of needing serious medical treatment and the particular awfulness of needing medical treatment you can't pay for. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeSep 30, 2012
Inherently unpreachy but making its point more effectively than many participants in the debate can, the film should find vocal advocates in a niche theatrical run. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirSep 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
80
Boxoffice MagazineSara Maria VizcarrondoSep 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
75
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianSep 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
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleSep 27, 2012
Wherever you stand on healthcare and the fact that uninsured people nationwide use emergency rooms for basic services, the documentary The Waiting Room is a revealing portrait of the often tough transactions between patients and hospital staff at the urgency level. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJonathan KieferSep 25, 2012
What makes The Waiting Room worth visiting is how well it does without the usual narcotizing documentary tactics. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichSep 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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