THE WAITING ROOM (2012) – The Review

So, this weekend we’ve an example of the true-crime feature-length documentary with WEST OF MEMPHIS. Turns out we’ve got another type of doc opening up. It’s the one-day-in-the life-of feature film. These slice-of-life films have followed a couple of policemen over a twenty-four period, or perhaps the kitchen area of a restaurant’s busy Saturday night. Well, this doc’s about a place that’s busy seven days a week: the emergency room of a hospital. That’s why the check-in area is known as THE WAITING ROOM (and this award-winning film’s title). Director Peter Nicks and his film makers converged on Oakland, California’s Highland Hospital, known as a public safety-net hospital. The under-staffed and overwhelmed crew must not only deal with the endless tide of mostly uninsured sick and injured, but rush to save the lives of those being brought in by the EMTs. Those cases make the ER crew’s heart race (one doc even says that the long-running TV drama “ER” inspired him to seek this line of work), but most of the day is taken up by the filling of forms, phone calls, and frustration.

Nicks focuses in on a few cases, from check-in to finally check-up. We meet a middle-aged carpet-layer without insurance who must take a cut in pay to keep working. He can only manage the pain of spine-spurs with pills, surgery is out of his reach. He smiles and jokes with the billing worker in an attempt to deal with his dire situation. A young married couple in their twenties must cope with the possibility of testicular tumors. They’ve been shuttled to Highland after another medical provider cut them loose. The most heart-tugging subplot deals with a divorced father having to bring in his very sick grade school-aged daughter. She can’t seem to swallow, and her blood-pressure is sky-high as is her fever. Dad can’t seem to keep up a brave face for her. He tells the camera about another trip to the ER with a child that did not have a happy ending. Luckily his ex-wife arrives, and the two put aside their squabbles to comfort their sick girl. Also, of big help is the upbeat registration agent, a sprightly, sassy grandmaw’ with sparkling eyes behind bright red glasses. She seems to help relieve the pain almost as much as the medical staff. We get to meet a couple of doctors as they try to collect information from angry, frustrated patients and one chronic substance abuser (he asks for his pastor, who seems tired of the man’s inability to remain sober). Then there are those brought in by ambulance. We can feel the despair as the staff learns that a gunshot victim was only fifteen. Minutes later a senior nurse advises a young doc on how to break the news to the boy’s family (“Not ‘he’s gone to a better place’, say ‘he died'”). The image of the boy’s body being wheeled into the morgue freezer and the sound of the heavy metal door clanging shut will haunt you.

This is expert on-the-fly filmmaking. We don’t hear Nicks asking questions of the principals. Only once are they acknowledged (a women leaving the ER into the dark street asks about the safety of the surrounding neighborhood). Time-lapse effects are used to show the ever-shifting stream of waiting people. The hours pass and day turns into night. We wonder just how long the staff shifts last. THE WAITING ROOM is an excellent report on this country’s health crisis. And it’s also a social media project. Viewers are encouraged to log in the film’s blog for updates and further information. It’s an enlightening, engageing look at people who carry on despite their obstacles. As the sun comes up, and the cameras are packed, the sick and injured fill up the chairs and wait…and wait…

4 Out of 5 Stars

THE WAITING ROOM screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas