Rating:
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Producer: Mark Burg, Oren Koules
Screenplay: James Kearns
Director of Photography: Rogier Stoffers
Cast: Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, James Woods, Anne Heche, Ray Liotta, Kimberly Elise, Daniel E. Smith
| JOHN
Q. Rating: Director: Nick Cassavetes Producer: Mark Burg, Oren Koules Screenplay: James Kearns Director of Photography: Rogier Stoffers Cast: Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, James Woods, Anne Heche, Ray Liotta, Kimberly Elise, Daniel E. Smith |
|
Review by: Warren
Curry
2/19/02
John Q. is the exact reason why certain people (like me) have a distinct prejudice against going to the local multiplex to see the latest product spit out from the studio assembly line. This film, like so many others before it, attempts to tackle serious issues without any regard for the complexities of reality. This sugar-coated fairy tale about the subject of public health care introduces a few questions worthy of debate, yet it casually brushes aside any effort to actually answer them. Why strain yourself over a little detail like that when your real purpose is to create victims so helpless and beyond reproach that the idea of provoking thought is crushed under the weight of perfectly lighting and framing a dying little boy's face to completely maximize tear jerk effect?
Denzel Washington plays John Quincy Archibald, the down-on-his-luck patriarch of a splendid family, which is also made up of his resilient, loving wife Denise (Kimberly Elise) and his cute-as-button, every-parent's-dream son Mike (Daniel E. Smith). Financially, John's hit hard times -- the factory he works at can't afford to give him full-time hours, so Mr. Archibald is reduced to toiling a mere 20 hours a week. Some residual effects of the loss of hours: The family car gets repossessed and their health benefits are drastically cut, which becomes quite an issue when Mike collapses while running to second base during a little league baseball game.
After Mike is rushed to the hospital, the Archibalds are given their son's dire diagnosis by the slimy head of cardiology Dr. Turner (James Woods) and the tougher-than-nails hospital administrator Rebecca Payne (Anne Heche). The evil duo also explains to the parents that their health coverage doesn't cover the heart transplant operation Mike will need to survive, and so they will be on the line for $250,000 if they go through with the procedure. Rebecca, as any sympathetic hospital administrator would do, comforts Mr. and Mrs. John Q. by suggesting that solace can be found in their ability to make Mike's last days on earth happy ones, since their chances of raising the necessary capital are slim and none.
Viewing death as an unacceptable result, John embarks on a grass roots effort to raise the money, which leaves him only about $230,000 short. When a hysterical Denise calls John from Mike's bedside, howling that their boy is going to be released due to the lack of funds, John Q. decides to show those fascists at the hospital the severe consequences of pushing Joe Average too far. He abducts Dr. Turner at gunpoint, forcing him into the ICU unit of the hospital and holding that entire section hostage. Before you can say Dog Day Afternoon, the event turns into a media frenzy replete with a hostage negotiator played by Robert Duvall (strangely the character is named Frank Grimes. Any Simpsons' fans in the audience?) and a dastardly police chief (Ray Liotta). As John Q. utters in a moment of desperation, "the only thing that can save Mike is an act of God" -- or something to that effect.-- I was left to wonder if screenwriter James Kearns found the blueprint for this script in a lost episode of Highway To Heaven, the TV series he wrote for in the 80's.
There's an interesting, intelligent film to be made about the pros and cons of a public health care system, and that's what partially irks me about John Q. I'm sure the people behind this nonsense probably think they've done an admirable job of championing a social cause, and perhaps they have inspired audiences to think about the matter. However, to channel this message through a shortsighted, surface level vehicle, in some way totally undermines their good intentions. Tackling this topic with such black and white heroes and villains speaks to a quick fix, easy answer mentality, which most likely has already fostered thousands of uninformed knee jerk reactions. John Q. makes every effort to manipulate your emotions, which is why it's so easy to resent.
Denzel Washington turns in a typically great performance; one of the few actors able to so easily rise above the occasionally terrible material he chooses to be involved with. Anne Heche and James Woods are given an impossible task, imprisoned by two of the most underwritten, cardboard cutout roles I've witnessed recently. Nick Cassavetes is the man behind the camera. If I may point out the obvious -- isn't this exactly the kind of material that led his old man to flip Hollywood the bird and make his own often inaccessible, sometimes brilliant films?
Health care in this country is a concern
that affects us all, and I truly feel for those people on the
losing end of an imperfect system. It's too bad that, yet again,
Hollywood would rather focus their time and resources into creating
a public self-congratulation campaign instead of treating this
issue with the amount of thought that it deserves.
Agree? Disagree? Talk about it in the forums.
|
|
|
|
|