John Q
In a dramatic story about a man named John Archibald suffering from a lack of assistance for his nine-year-old son, who is in desperate need of a life-saving transplant. After a long period of pain and suffering, the man discovers that his medical insurance will not cover the cost of surgery needed by his child and that alternative government assistance is not available. The man decided to take illegal action to get what he wanted by taking the hospital emergency room hostage in a last-ditch attempt to save his sick child.
1966 in Ontario, Canada
14 July 1970, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
28 October 1970, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
26 January 1964, Spokane, Washington, USA
18 December 1954, Newark, New Jersey, USA
January 07, 2004
Instead of presenting the story and allowing us to draw our own conclusions, Cassavetes blatantly tells us what we should think.
February 24, 2002
It pulls out more stops than that old silent serial The Perils of Pauline. Unfortunately, it's a talkie.
January 21, 2003
A coercive script by James Kearns, and some middling direction by Nick Cassavetes, can't rob the movie of an undeniable, headlong crowd-pleasing power as it tackles an issue that touches us all.
May 17, 2009
Strands good actors in mushy, movie-of-the-week material. [Blu-ray]
March 13, 2002
Manipulative sentimentality, contrived plot and phony climax.
April 29, 2009
A hokey and often silly commentary about the medical industry, and corruption within the establishment.
February 21, 2002
Cassavetes thinks he's making Dog Day Afternoon with a cause, but all he's done is to reduce everything he touches to a shrill, didactic cartoon.
September 24, 2007
The movie comes dangerously close to saying that the solution to a personal grievance is, well, terrorism, when you get right down to it.
March 04, 2002
A sappy, melodramatic Denzel Washington vehicle that ensnares you in the standard hostage-movie scenario and doesn't let go until the director runs the whole playbook.
December 18, 2006
Social messages, simplistic action, and teary melodrama are manipulatively but unsuccessfully mixed in this picture, which tries to provide a "hard" look at an honest working-class man (Washington) who loses control while trying to save his child's life
January 01, 2011
Thought-provoking. Too intense for young teens.
November 06, 2002
A polemic in search of a plot.
