John Q

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.