John Q (2002)

John Q (2002)

7/10

Starring

Denzel Washington

Robert Duvall

James Woods

Anne Heche

Directed by Nick Cassavetes

They don’t make drama movies like this any more. The movie is a raw reflection of how messed up HMO insurance can be, and it drives home the point that if you don’t have money, you’d better not get seriously ill. It’s both a sad and uplifting film, and Denzel Washington was absolutely at the top of his game here. The entire cast brought their A-game, too. This movie is not as popular as his other movies, but it is just as magnificent.

I don’t understand why this movie got bad critical ratings because, for me, it’s top-tier when it comes to the plot, the acting, and everything in between. It was a financial success at the box office compared to its production cost, but what many people didn’t like was how the movie kept hammering its message. To me, that wasn’t a problem—it just added to the harsh reality of life and how broken and expensive healthcare has become.

The plot follows a man named John (Denzel Washington), who’s struggling to make ends meet. He’s married with a son, and every day feels like a battle. Life keeps hitting him with one blow after another. At a baseball game, his son collapses while running and is rushed to the hospital. There, John and his wife learn that their son has a heart condition and needs a transplant to survive. They agree to the surgery, but then comes the next punch: their insurance won’t cover it. This is a massive blow to John, who’s already living paycheck to paycheck. The hospital classifies it as an outpatient case, but the transplant cost around 250,000, a sum John and his wife can’t even imagine having. When they’re told they need to raise75,000 just to get their son on the transplant waiting list, the real battle begins.

John and his wife try everything—begging for handouts and applying for aid—but they still can’t raise enough money. When the hospital gets tired of waiting and decides to discharge their son, John takes drastic action: he takes the entire ER hostage.

That’s where the movie kicks off, and we get a deeper look into the healthcare system in many countries. The film explores how things unfold and how John deals with being labelled a kidnapper while the police close in. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend you take the time to watch it.