A film reaction to John Q

This movie is a tough one because on one hand a father should be willing to do anything to save
his child's life. On the other hand, he should not endanger others to do so. On one hand hospitals should
not charge so freaking much for some services, on the other hand medical expertise & equipment is
expensive. I know that surgeons have mass amounts of medical school bills to pay, but at the same time
they also have that Lexus payment they've gotta make. I don't mind paying off a month of my surgeons
medical school bill, but I have a real hard time making his monthly Lexus payment. When a life is in
danger and you KNOW you can save that life, but you're not going to because of money, that's messed
up.

When John's limited health insurance coverage and contributions from the community fail to
meet Nate's steep medical costs, the hospital threatens to discharge the child. With all
normal avenues no longer an option, John takes Dr. Turner, other staffers, and a handful of
patients hostage in a hospital wing, demanding that Nate be added to the transplant list.
Thus begins a hostage drama that is overwrought not only in its suspense-manufacturing
manipulations but also in its heavy-handed discussion of medical insurance companies.

John Q's underlying concept has a great deal of relevance in today's world, where the term "medical
coverage" is rarely mentioned without an accompanying, profane adjective. Yet Cassavetes and
screenwriter James Kearns take this important issue and make it the fulcrum of a story that is divorced
from reality by so many contrivances that it's almost laughable. From the moment when John storms
into the hospital and takes over, believability goes out the window. There is no way that a lone man,
untrained in fighting and with only a small gun, could take over the wing of a hospital, hold off the entire
Chicago police force, and turn into an instant folk hero while threatening to kill innocent people. But
that's not all - we also get loads of corny dialogue and several pointless subplots. A power struggle
develops between Grimes and Monroe, but this is just filler. And there are feeble attempts to satirize
media zeal in the person of a TV reporter who's as concerned with his appearance as with getting the
story.

For the first hour or so, the film tries to stay even-handed. We see the Archibald family waiting in lines,
trying to make sense of their conversations with doctors, and constantly being told no at their requests
for help. But there's also a great scene when John first takes over the emergency room. Patients are
screaming at him for treatment, phones are ringing, a pregnant woman is on the verge of delivery,
decisions need to be made quickly; we briefly feel the pressure that doctors and emergency room staff
must constantly be under. John Q is solidly on the side of people on the outskirts of the health care
industry, though, and as the voice of the over-taxed everyman, Denzel Washington is the only thing that
keeps the film from completely de-railing.

John Q. is an easy movie to respect but not a particularly easy one to like. It seems to have been made
for all the right reasons – specifically to highlight and comment on injustice and inequity in the health
care system of the U.S. – but it is so dumb and obvious and – yawwwwwn – "been there, done that" in
execution that it's hard to get overly-enthused about it.