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John Q

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Give a father no options and you leave him no choice.

John Q Archibald (Denzel Washington) a down-on-his luck father, whose insurance won't cover his 9-year-old son Mike's (Daniel E Smith) heart transplant, takes the hospital's emergency room hostage until the doctors agree to perform the operation.

Persons of interest

Denzel Washington .... John Q Archibald
Daniel E Smith .... Mike Archibald
Robert Duvall .... Grimes
Anne Heche .... Rebecca Payne
Ray Liotta .... Monroe
Ethan Suplee .... Max
Shawn Hatosy .... Mitch
Kimberly Elise .... Denise
Keram Malicki-Sánchez .... Freddy
Heather Wahlquist .... Julie
Eddie Griffin .... Lester
James Kearns .... Screenwriter
Nick Cassavetes .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

John Q official movie site
John Q QuickTime movie trailers
Studios and distributors:

New Line * Roadshow Films

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Well, you know from the Propaganda that John Q is a "good man vs the system" flick. The twist comes from the lengths to which John Q is willing to go. The Hollywood ending is that no-one dies who deserves to live.

Denzel Washington takes his role through all the necessary highs and lows but doesn't manage to extend those highs and lows to the audience (that's you). The supporting cast are all much more interesting characters although they could never manage to reach the requisite Hollywood ending (their flaws are what makes them interesting; John's flaw is that he has no flaws).

John Q is an interesting film but doesn't quite have the balls to be the thriller it could be.

FYI: "John Q" is a name used in the USA to refer to the average citizen, as in "John Q Public". See also Joe Somebody.