JOHN Q.
© 2002 New Line
JOHN Q.
By: Michael TunisonDate: Friday, February 15, 2002
Sometimes one element is enough to keep a film alive when all of its vital signs seem to be failing, and such is the case with Denzel Washington's heartfelt performance in the otherwise creaky melodrama JOHN Q. This health care-themed riff on DOG DAY AFTERNOON may take hackneyed plot turns of a kind that would make the writing staff of GENERAL HOSPITAL blush, but Washington never stops fighting to give it a convincing emotional core, even when the story's dramatic foundations start to crumble down around him. The degree to which the film works at all is a testament to the appeal of one of Hollywood's most consistently watchable stars.
Not that there's anything wrong with the basic premise, which uses the familiar conventions of the hostage thriller to delve into all-too-real issues such as how vulnerable even Americans supposedly covered by health insurance may be to certain illnesses in the age of penny-pinching HMOs. That's the gut-wrenching situation Everyman factory worker John Q. Archibald (Washington) and his wife Denise (BELOVED's Kimberly Elise) face when they learn that their young son Michael (Daniel E. Smith) is suffering from a heart condition that will claim his life if they can't arrange a transplant immediately. John is stunned to discover that his insurance was recently changed without his knowledge, and as a result his family is no longer covered for such an expensive procedure. Unless the working-class Archibalds can raise a major portion of the operation's $250,000 cost in a matter of weeks, Michael will die.
Basically a law-abiding sort, John tries every conventional channel open to him, but he can't scrape up enough cash to get a cold-blooded hospital administrator (Anne Heche) to agree to put Michael on the list of patients awaiting new hearts. Finally, set off by his wife's pleading for him to "Do something!" on the day Michael is sent home to die, John gets a handgun and commandeers a wing of the hospital, taking the chief heart surgeon (James Woods) and several others prisoner. "John Q.'s" ultimatum to the arriving police: Get the hospital to put his son's name on the heart list or he will start killing people.
While director Nick Cassavetes and screenwriter James Kearns start off on a relatively strong footing with the emotionally grounded family drama of the film's first half-hour or so, things take a sharp turn for the formulaic when John takes over the hospital in the second act. The would-be colorful hostages play as one-note types (the streetwise black dude, the surly white woman-beater, his low-self-esteem bombshell girlfriend), while outside supporting characters such as a veteran hostage negotiator (Robert Duvall), the publicity-conscious police chief (Ray Liotta) and an arrogant TV reporter (Paul Johansson) are stock figures instantly recognizable from countless similar pictures. (As recently as 1997 John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman played out a variation of the same story in MAD CITY, with Travolta as a disgruntled security guard who takes over the museum where he's employed and Hoffman as an ambitious TV reporter working the situation for all it's worth.)
Any credibility the film initially gains with the audience is further frittered away with unbelievable twists of the storyline as Cassavetes and company build toward an impossible-to-swallow finish that will rankle even moviegoers as typically gullible and forgiving as this reviewer. The Hollywood ending suggests that while the filmmakers clearly set out to say some important things with JOHN Q., they aren't half as committed to following the idea through to its logical conclusion as the title character is, and the cheap out they take at the finale robs the film of any real power it might have had. Cassavetes (son of actor-turned-maverick filmmaker John Cassavetes and legendary actress Gena Rowlands) made a promising directorial debut in 1996 with the compelling drama UNHOOK THE STARS, followed by the daringly off-kilter Sean Penn quirk-fest SHE'S SO LOVELY, but he goes against envelope-pushing family tradition by playing it safe this time out. One can only hope he gets his nerve back for his next project.
Fortunately, powerhouse cast members such as Duvall, Liotta, Woods and Heche are able to carve out engaging moments here and there even as the overall film is losing steam. Elise and the Gary Coleman-esque cherub Smith are so likable as John Q's wife and son that many viewers may go on rooting for the film long after it's begun its long slide into grade-B tear-jerker territory.
And then there's the hard-working Washington, whose naturally heroic screen presence puts him in a select club with the likes of Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson. Is anybody keeping track of how many movies this guy has single-handedly saved? One could debate the degree to which a film as average and predictable as the fittingly titled JOHN Q. can be rescued, but it would be hard to name many actors who could have gotten so far on so little.
Reviewed Format: Theatrical Release | ||
Rated: PG-13 | ||
Stars: Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, James Woods, Anne Heche, Eddie Griffin, Kimberly Elise, Ray Liotta | ||
Writer: James Kearns | ||
Director: Nick Cassavetes | ||
Distributor: New Line | ||
