The new documentary, Complicated, is just that. Filmmaker Andrew Abrahams crafts a fiercely compelling film about a group of innocent victims against a practically invisible enemy. Ehler’s-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is the monster. A nebulous, nearly undiagnosable inherited disease that attacks the connective tissue in the body, resulting in myriad symptoms. The disorder affects 1 in 3,ooo resulting in variations of hyperflexibility, sensitive skin, and chronic pain to name a few. Between a mysterious disease and a complacent healthcare system, the children, their parents, and adults who are coping with the condition face a constantly difficult, often humiliating battle to find relief, much less a cure. With such a massive subject, Complicated is an unquestionably compelling, if dry doc.

Abrahams follows a handful of subjects that suffer from EDS and what they face, day to day. Right off the bat, we are introduced to Kate. An aspiring figure skater, Kate began to experience chronic pain. After breaking her ankle, her hopes are dashed. Soon after the crippling pain worsens and more bones break. Eventually she endures surgery resulting in the installation of metal screws in her neck. Sure she can keep her head up, but she can’t turn her head left or right. The worst part about it is that, compared to the other victims in the film, Kate has it pretty good.

We next get a good look at the US Healthcare system. Their response to anything out of the ordinary is met with skepticism and suspicion. One adult woman explains that with her particular type of EDS she bruises easily. She and her husband are all too familiar with with the routine where the doctor asks her husband to leave the examination room to ask if she is being abused. But that suspicion is nothing compared to what the parents of children with EDS have to endure.

Another family from California explains their story when both their pre-teen daughter and son began having symptoms such as seizures, cramps, and chronic pain. At a loss for any discernible cause for the children’s illness the doctors turn on the parents accusing them of abuse or neglect. The healthcare system, which is supposed to help, became The family’s only recourse? In order to keep the children from the foster care system, the parents divorce, the mother moves out, and visitation is granted only under supervision of a social worker.

Abrahams hits the audience with a torrent of facts and countless stories that all point to the same thing. The global healthcare system and, in particular medicine in the United States is broken. It is reluctant to do anything that won’t turn a profit including spending time investigating something that affects children, has no FDA-Approved treatment, and is not covered by insurance. The problem is passed onto the courts who subject suffering families to accusations and litigation.

While Complicated is a provocative call to action, the narratives of the victims are overshadowed by the exhaustive information. The result is a clinical, academic, doc rather than inspirational. Perhaps the doc is more targeted to the medical community that would be expected to roll their eyes at emotion over data and profiles. IF that is Abrahams angle, he has built a Trojan horse of a doc that needs to be required viewing for every physician moving forward. As it stands now, the film is important, but it offers little recourse for those outside the medical industry.