Rated PG, directed by John Cassavetes, with Denzel Washington (John Quincy Archibald, Robert Duvall (Frank Grimes), James Woods (Dr. Raymond Turner), running time: 118 minutes.
John Q's young, Gary Coleman-esque son has been diagnosed with a heart ailment that will kill him unless he receives a transplant. Hospital administrators refuse to put the boy on a donor waiting list unless his father can come up with a US$75,000 deposit. His friends, relatives and church scrape together US$6,000, but the hospital decides to release the boy, essentially to die. At this point, what started as a tearjerker about a little boy turns into rally cry for a social healthcare system in the US. John Q pulls a gun and shuts down the emergency room as a crowd of well-wishers surround the hospital in support of their anti-HMO hero. For all its melodramatic hokiness, John Q obviously touched raw nerves. US healthcare providers Blue Cross/Blue Shield launched a campaign before the film's release reassuring people that transplants are available to almost everyone who needs them.
PHOTO: MATA
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