Review: “Handicapped…Accessible?”

Brilliant filmmaker Michael Moore taught us to hate the greedy executives at GM, to hate the NRA and perhaps most eloquently, to hate those self important “soldiers” who died grisly deaths on the Iraqi battlefield. Now, in “Handicapped…accessible?” he goes after, with hyena-like intensity, the legacy of another American villain, the late Christopher Reeve.

Finally someone has the balls to expose the selfishness and pomposity of Reeve, his media-whore wife, Dana Reeve, the handicapped lobby, and perhaps most convincingly, physically and mentally handicapped people themselves.

Was Reeve’s paralyzing 1990 fall at Churchill Downs really an “accident”? Careful review and re-editing of the footage from that day suggest an element of deliberateness. It is also interesting how little information was given about this fall. A little digging on Moore’s part strongly implicates Dick Cheney, Charleton Heston, and perhaps even Hillary Duff in this so-called “accident.”

But in classic Moore fashion, “La Michael” hardly stops at Reeve. He leverages his usual combination of cunning, clever stunts, and relentlessness to uncover the truth that they don’t want us to see. Did you know, for example, that when dumped off of their wheelchairs, many allegedly “handicapped” persons are capable of some mobility, at least for a second or two? Or that severely retarded children are nearly as capable of self defense as other children when threatened with imminent death? To make matters worse, Moore ensemble players Susan Sarandon and Jeannine Garofolo must put up with police harassment while trying to help Moore prove these points.

Perhaps most compelling is the interview with Reeves himself, vintage Moore from start to finish. In this relentless, multi-hour interrogation, Moore gets at the truth under Reeves motionless exterior through a combination of combativeness, physical intimidation, and threats to Reeve and his family members. The result is impressive to say the least: tearful confessions from the paralyzed fraud just before he lapses into a stress induced coma (as an interesting footnote, Reeves never again regained consciousness).

With Reeve dispatched, Moore is free to go after his widow, who apparently had much to gain from Reeve’s mishap. As passionate and dedicated filmmaker as exists today, Moore stops at nothing to score the ultimate coup d’etat: a deathbed interrogation of wife Dana.

In a section of the film filled with dramatic intensity, Moore races against the clock to catch up with and ultimately destroy Dana before she expires from lung cancer. As expected, by the time the interview is over, we wonder how real this “cancer” is, particularly after Mrs. Reeves seems no worse even when her oxygen supply is cut off.

The film ends with an interesting epilogue: Moore openly questions the deaths of both Reeves, noting that the aforementioned Hillary Duff enjoyed unprecedented access to their bodies before cremation. Why is this? To put their money where their mouth is, Moore, Sarandon and Garofolo visit and desecrate the graves of the couple, a scene which at first seems unnecessarily scatological, but ultimately quite thought provoking.

This film is an inspired coup. Some may agree or disagree, but all will think twice before they write their next check to the Multiple Sclerosis Society or even hold a door open for a child in a wheelchair. I can barely wait for next fall, when Moore takes on those “starving” Africans.