Whether it's Joel Schumacher's "A Time to Kill" or your standard Charles Bronson flick, vigilante cinema tends to be underwhelmingly stultifying. Perhaps it's due to the genre's sentimental cliches or the tendency to ensure at least one painfully preachy monologue that flatly proclaims the differences between good and evil (although sometimes there's more than one such speech). "John Q" often is no different, a film entrapped by the chains of its form.
As seen in a couple particular scenes, the concept of "heartwarming" can be a word that triggers immediate box office failure. And this is the path that "John Q" undoubtedly is headed, perhaps rightfully so.
Take for example, these lines:
Dying child in bed (Daniel E. Smith) says, "Mom says I need a new heart."
Passionately supportive father (Denzel Washington) says, "That's right, champ, you do."
Viewers start to wonder how this movie ever got made in the first place. Well, the answer to that question is simple. "John Q" aims straight at a topic that has direct relevance to any American who doesn't have health insurance. In case you haven't heard the latest numbers, that's 43 million people. One out of four Americans failed to see a doctor last year because of the U.S. health insurance debacle. And it's that sort of topical subject matter that brings on bandwagon star power, this time in the form of Robert Duvall, Anne Heche, Ray Liotta, James Woods and Denzel Washington.
Washington's performance, as always, is perfect. Despite the inevitably distracting audience identification of Denzel as Denzel and not John Q. Archibald, his acting is so flawless that the viewer quickly forgets that this is Hurricane Carter Denzel and Malcolm X Denzel (and his several other Oscar worthy manifestations). Instead, viewers find themselves falling into the movie and believing in the acting.
Beyond that, however, there is little left to praise. The film is solely for Washington fans. It would be difficult to recommend it to anyone else. Why? Because I've seen the entire plot on the commercial. For those of you who haven't figured out the story line from the "John Q"trailer, it's quite simple.
Factory work is low for John Q. His wife just started a job at a grocery store. Other than money problems, they are the faultless Hollywood family. All's well until their 10-year-old son Mike collapses during a baseball game. When John finds out he's not fully covered for his son's heart transplant, the hospital and insurance company are as coldly unreceptive as the medical staff in Margaret Edson's "Wit." Supposedly unable to save his son by any other means, John Q takes the hospital E.R. room hostage.
This is where some audience members might shut off sympathy for the protagonist. And this is a problem for Nick Cassavetes, the film's director. Post Sept. 11 viewers understandably have even less tolerance for Bernard Goetz mentalities. Yet Cassavetes and debut screenwriter James Kearns continue to manipulate the audience as best they can to support his choice in creating a hostage situation.
Perhaps the most insulting role in the film is that of the American public. They stand along barricaded Chicago streets, waving and cheering for John Q with total disregard for the sniper bullets, which could fly at any minute. Their acceptance and admiration of John Q is downright idiotic, especially considering its realist tone. Besides the topnotch Eddie Griffin, the humorless and occasionally pedantic tone of "John Q" weighs a bit much for a 144-minute viewing.
Take an economically depressed American, give him an unloaded gun and have him take innocent hospital patients hostage, give him several tear jerking speeches and you have a movie that's fit for a mass marketing campaign. Instead of "John Q," nostalgic vigilante film fans - and, God, I hope there aren't any - should instead stick with Joel Schumacher and rent the much more superior "Falling Down"
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