John Q

Actor-turned-director Nick Cassavetes teams up with TV writer James Kearns to create a sincere but controlling tear-jerker about a good man who breaks under the pressure from outside. John R. McEwen admitted in his review, “Boy, have I been there.” Starring in the 2002 well-deserved crying film, “John Q,” is Denzel Washington, the original “goodman,” straying away from his criminal ways from the previous year’s “Training Day” until we see him as one of us, a desperate man who, when his little son needs an expensive operation that his insurance company won’t pay for, is forced to fight against the law. Also casted, and overqualified, are Robert Duvall and James Woods, who are both really underused that you think why the producers try to pay them. McEwen said, “Maybe it was just the omnidirectional system-bashing message they were eager to get behind. Not content to merely extoll the virtues of standing up for oneself, the film vilifies hospitals, HMOs, police, and the media in a self-righteous treatise on the plight of the working class hero.”

Washington plays Chicago millworker John Q. Archibald, whose recent downgrade to 20 hours per week has him looking for a second job to pay the bills. He and his wife Denise (Kimberly Elise) make a living with their young son Mike (Daniel E. Smith), but when he faints during a Little League baseball game, they rush him to the hospital and find that he is suffering from a long undiagnosed heart enlargement, and needs a new hear immediately. Despite cardiologist Dr. Turner (Woods) recommends immediate decision, hospital director Rebecca Payne (Anne Heche) is not so desperate, since John’s insurance carrier does not cover this type of surgery. McEwen said, “With the self-serving iciness that is apparently the primary job qualification for hospital directors, Ms. Payne informs John that if he can't come up with the $75,000 down payment, Mike's name won't even be placed on the recipient list.”

John desperately tries to raise the money, doing everything from selling his car to accepting donations collected by his church, but when Mike’s condition worsens and Denise is told that their son is about to be discharged, John decides that must really take serious matters. He pulls a gun and take the entire emergency room hostage, including several patients (one including Eddie Griffin) and nurses, and the good doctor, as well, saying that he will start killing people if his son isn’t given the operation. Soon the hospital is surrounded with law enforcement officers and news media, including sneaky Lieutenant Grimes (Duvall), condescending Police Chief Monro (Ray Liotta), and ambitious newsman Tuck Lampley (Paul Johnsson), whose description is so stale he looks on the entire issue as a great moment for money, actually saying the words, “This is my white Bronco.”

McEwen said, “This film reminds me of 1997's Mad City, which had John Travolta taking a bunch of school kids and a museum director at gunpoint to save his job. The difference is that this film actually seems to encourage this sort of vigilante justice, portraying John as an unqualified hero whose desperate methods eventually pay off. Besides the film's pro-vigilante bent, there are numerous instances of emotionally overblown pandering, moments when director Cassavetes may as well have flashed the words "cry now" on the screen.”

Obviously, then you have the actors. McEwen said, “Washington, Woods, and Duvall are so capable, they almost save this schlock-fest from itself. Their technique covers a multitude of sins, and Cassavetes knows that.” Good for him, bad for us.

I don’t understand why this film got bashed really bad from critics. Maybe they thought that, realistically speaking, a father wouldn’t really go that extreme in that situation, but I think they would. Put yourself in John Q’s shoes and you’ll understand why he did what he did in order to make sure his son got the heart operation. Don’t listen to the critics, you should see the movie because I think you will like it.

Look out next week when we look at another powerful movie in “Denzel Washington Month.”