John Q

Starring: Robert Duvall, Denzel Washington

RS: Not Rated Average User Rating: 3of 4 Stars

2002 Drama

John Q is a botch job, even though it's crawling with Oscar winners and nominees. Denzel Washington, fresh from his triumph in Training Day, stars as a blue-collar father holding a hospital hostage so his young son can get a heart transplant. Robert Duvall plays a hostage negotiator, and James Woods is the surgeon forced to operate at gunpoint. Happy paychecks, guys. What looked like a thriller with a social conscience - those HMO bastards! - is a subpar episode of ER. Working from a trite script by James Kearns, director Nick Cassavetes (She's So Lovely) stoops mighty low. In one scene, Anne (Call Me Crazy) Heche, as a hard-ass hospital lackey, tells John Q. that his son must die for lack of health insurance and then lets a tear trickle down her cheek when Dad bids his son farewell on TV - those media bastards sneaked in a camera! John Q. is as fake as that tear, an exploitative mess trying to pass as social activism.

PETER TRAVERS
(RS 891- March 14, 2002)