John Q (2002) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
"Just don't take no for an answer."
Starring Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, Anne Heche, James Woods, Kimberly Elise, Ray Liotta. Directed by Nick Cassavetes. Rated PG-13.
John Q is really a pretty good yarn, an entertaining drama that poses an intriguing and unusual moral dilemma, one that is the subject of discussion in any Philosophy 101 course: what happens when a man breaks the law in an attempt to save the life of a loved one? The movie cops out on any sort of answer, but by that time it didn't even matter. It had already established itself as a cheap, clumsy melodrama, using its plot to hammer us with a heavy-handed indictment of the American healthcare system. Obviously the movie was made by someone with a strong conviction regarding the material and, indeed, it is dedicated to director Nick Cassavetes' daughter who has congenital heart disease. I usually appreciate it when a movie takes a stand, but not when its approach is so juvenile.
John Quincy Archibald (Denzel Washington) is a machinist who is trying but failing to make ends meet: his employer just slashed his hours and his car has been taken away, with his house next on the docket. One of the only joys that remains in his life is his upbeat, nonchalant young son, spending time with whom never fails to lift his spirits. At his little league game one day, he collapses while running the bases. The hospital says that his heart has swelled to three times the normal size, and that he will die if he doesn't get a more or less immediate heart transplant.
Of course, John cannot afford the $250,000 procedure; his employer just downgraded to a second-rate HMO and he can't put up the required $75,000 deposit. The rather Satanic hospital administrator, played as a villain by Anne Heche, who deserves better, says that the boy will be discharged if the money doesn't magically appear very very soon. The desperate John, who later dubs himself John Q when talking to a hostage negotiator, accosts the cardiologist (James Woods) in the hallway, and before he knows it, he is waving around a gun and taking the emergency room under siege.
The idea of the inadvertent hostage negotiator -- the unassuming victim in a situation that suddenly goes way over his head -- is nothing new, but John Q brings the interesting moral and legal question to the table. Even when the movie falters, and it does that alot, it is propelled forward because it makes us think, if inadvertently, about the best way to handle such a situation. Cassavetes does everything in his power to make us root for the man and jeer the system, but the intelligent viewer will realize that neither makes much sense.
The movie should have been content in making us consider the question. Instead, it insists on emphasizing the injustice of our healthcare and welfare systems, indicting everyone in sight for everything the writer could think to throw on the screen. Obviously it's not going to come up with a solution, but it doesn't even have any ideas; it's all whiny talk and no action. The ending is a cheap compromise that gives the filmmakers the opportunity to have the cake and eat it, too. It cheats on at least two different levels.
Denzel Washington, in between big projects, does his best to get us through the movie's highs and lows, and his performance is typically incredible. Putting him in a movie is a handy way of ensuring that the project won't be anything but watchable. Director Cassavetes has a cumbersome, tv-soap-opera way of filming, all static cameras and unwieldy, jagged editing back-and-forth. He almost rides his concept and lead actor to at least a mild victory, but is defeated by his own passion. How odd that one of the few Hollywood movies not made as a result of pure impersonal commercialism fails because of that very fact.
Grade: C+
Up Next: Hart's War
©2002 Eugene Novikov
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