EXECUTIVE BRIEFCASE: Movie Review
JOHN Q
A New Line Cinema film. Directed by Nick Cassavetes. Starring Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, James Woods, Anne Heche and Ray Liotta
Guess who gets hammered when Hollywood tackles healthcare,plaintiffs’ lawyers? Government bureaucrats? Guess again. Why, it’s the private sector, of course! Screenwriter James Kearns takes out his poison pen and writes,in blood no less,this one-sided morality tale. The film stars Denzel Washington as John Q. Archibald, a blue-collar family man whose world crumbles when his only son needs a heart transplant. Is the family covered for the $250,000 procedure? Nope. The company where John Q. works switched him to a low-cost HMO whose coverage tops out at $20,000. Exhausting all other options, he takes hostages at the aptly named Crisis of Hope Memorial Hospital and demands his boy get a new heart. Yes, “John Q.” is an annoyingly formulaic movie. Watching it, I could imagine Kearns pitching the idea: “Okay, it’s ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ meets ‘Erin Brockovich’ with a hip, urban twist to it. Got it?” Got it. Now get out! The factual liberties taken in the film would make Oliver Stone cringe. Are HMOs faultless? Hardly, but we don’t need a two-hour advertorial for nationalized medicine or the demonizing of hospital administrators; I’ve seen cinematic prison wardens with more sensitivity that the hospital director portrayed by Anne Heche.
Our Rating: One Briefcase
, Daniel D. Williams
