"John Q" Rated PG-13
****/*****
Many critics have given John Q starring Denzel Washington horrible ratings because of its implausibility or for its preachy-ness, or its formlamatic script. Granted, the script is a bit like lots of other movies (Dog Day Afternoon, Mad City, and The Negotiator), but it is still a good movie. It is not a great movie (there's nothing new here), but it is a well exacute take on the old good-guy-goes-crazy-and-holds-people-hostage, with one difference: it has a point.
John Q focus on the state of our nation's health care system. It maintains that it is very unfair to people with lower income (like John Q. played by Denzel Washington). John's son Mike (played well by the newcomer Daniel Smith) falls unconscious while rounding first base at a little league game. Dr. Turner (James Woods) and receptionist Rebecca Payne inform John that Mike will need a pricey heart transplant to life... and that unfortunately, his insurance doesn't provide for it. After being screwed by his insurance carrier and by the hospital, John decides to take hostages and demand that Mike's name be put on the donor list.
Robert Duvall and Ray Liotta play a hostage negotiator and a police chief respectively, but they're not very important. What is important is John Q. Through many tense and some heart-wrentching scene we see just how far a desperate father is willing to go, and it is very, very touching.
Denzel Washington gives another brilliant performance, thought not near as good as his turn in Training Day. this is much more of a typical good guy role for Washington. He helps accentuate the moral of the story through the pain, frustration, and sense of being trapped he shows. Yes, the point is driven in hard, but it is a good point to make.
