Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

John Q (2002)

Director: Nick Cassavetes

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Washington rubbed off his customary sheen of integrity in Training Day, and picked up an Oscar. In this misbegotten blend of populist rabble-rouser and medical tearjerker, he plays blue collar hero John Quincy Archibald. True, John Q - a desperate industrial worker on shortened hours who takes over a hospital ER at gunpoint to secure his sick kid a heart transplant - is the best thing in the film, a beacon of acting sincerity in a sea of thespian bemusement. However, enveloping a significant political issue like healthcare provision in the US in such a psychologically crude, Dog Day Afternoon-style siege drama gives the film an unsavoury exploitative dimension. It also leaves Washington with a credibility problem, not helped by director Nick Cassavetes' standard over-emphasis, guilelessness and poor timing.

Author: WH 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Nick Cassavetes

Producer: Mark Burg, Oren Koules

Cast: Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, James Woods, Anne Heche, Eddie Griffin, Kimberly Elise, Shawn Hatosy, Ray Liotta, David Thornton, Ethan Suplee full cast

Genre(s): Thrillers

Duration: 116 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.