John Q ** (2002, Denzel Washington) Classic Movie Review 1426

Director Nick Cassavetes’s 2002 thriller stars reliable Denzel Washington as John Quincy Archibald, a father and husband whose young son Michael (Daniel E. Smith) is diagnosed with an enlarged heart after he collapses at his baseball game. But John Q finds out the boy cannot receive an urgent transplant because his health insurance will not cover it. 

Then John Q gets so desperate for his son to have the heart transplant that he decides to take the staff at a hospital  full of patients hostage until the hospital puts his son’s name on the heart donor recipients’ list. John Q walks into the hospital’s ER with a handgun, gathers hostages and demands that his son’s name is put on the recipient list as soon as possible. The hostage negotiator, Lt. Frank Grimes (Robert Duvall), stands down to let John Q cool off.

Written by James Kearns, this is a well-acted and fairly gripping but alas all-too-clichéd, predictable thriller. The thin, not always convincing screenplay leaves a bunch of good actors fighting ill-written, sketchy characters. The result is watchable but never riveting as it should be, but at least it’s an intelligent, good-hearted story with something on its mind.

Anne Heche, James Woods, Eddie Griffin and Ray Liotta also star. The main cast is rounded out by Kimberly Elise, Shawn Hatosy, Daniel E Smith, Paul Johansson, David Thornton and Vanessa Branch.

The film was shot in Toronto, Hamilton, Ontario, and Canmore, Alberta though the story takes place in Chicago.

The fictional film’s SWAT team advisers related a similar real-life incident in Toronto where a man (Henry Masuka) took an ER hostage after it would not provide immediate service to his infant son on New Year’s Eve 1999. During shots of the news coverage of the hostage situation in the hospital, there’s a cameo by Senator Hillary Clinton, who argues for healthcare reform, especially in cases like this one.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1426

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