Review of John Q

Introduction

The NHS is a remarkable organisation. It guarantees healthcare for all, regardless of income or status and it is truly the miracle of the welfare state. That`s if you ignore the waiting lists, regional lotteries, eye test and dental charges. It`s hard to imagine the healthcare systems in other countries, where you actually have to pay for treatment. The situation in America for example is somewhat shocking to the British observer. There you must possess health insurance to qualify for treatment. By paying regularly into the health policy provided by your employer or one of your own choice, you guarantee that you and your immediate family are covered for medical care. If you are wealthy enough, you have decent insurance and all your potential health needs are covered for. At the other end of the scale, the poverty stricken and those claiming welfare are guaranteed healthcare by the government. It`s the few who have low paying jobs, but earn enough to no longer qualify for welfare payments who lose out in this system. The healthcare policies available to this demographic are usually cheap and cut down policies with restrictions on what medical treatment the bearer is qualified for. John Q explores this harsh inequity of the US healthcare system, with an all-star cast including Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, James Woods and Ray Liotta. With such a controversial and explosive premise and a cast of such luminaries it seems impossible that John Q could be a dud.

John Quincy Archibald is a devoted father and husband, who works hard in a low paying job to support his family. When his son Mike falls grievously ill with a life-threatening heart condition, John and his wife are devastated to discover that their health insurance will not cover the treatment. Faced with the hardhearted attitude of the hospital authorities, the Archibalds race to raise enough cash to pay for their son`s urgently needed heart transplant. But time runs out, and Mike is poised to be discharged by the hospital, in effect to go home and die. John in a reckless act of desperation, seizes the emergency room of the hospital at gunpoint, and threatens to kill hostages unless his son is treated.

Video

John Q comes with a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, and the original source material is clear and colourful with no sign of age or print damage. Unfortunately the transfer onto DVD is wanting, as I felt that contrast levels seemed low, there was evidence of grain and there were obvious macro blocking artefacts. On occasion, there was some image ghosting as well. With the extras as well as this 110-minute movie, I feel perhaps that a little too much compression was used to fit everything onto one disc.

Audio

DD 5.1, DTS 5.1 and DD 2.0 English soundtracks grace John Q. The nature of the film, being dialogue heavy and action light means the surround effects rarely impinge on your awareness. The rare helicopter flying overhead or door slamming are all that the speakers are really asked to convey, but the dialogue is always clearly audible which is more important when considering a film of this nature.

Features

This film is fairly packed with extras, all presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic and cropped to fit where necessary. There is the usual theatrical trailer of course, to which is added the Original Theatrical Press Kit, which translates as Production Notes. There are pages of text covering aspects of the production as well as copious filmographies for the cast and crew.

There are 6 deleted/alternative scenes, and you have the option to view these with or without commentary as well as separately or all in one go. These scenes are really more of the same and don`t really add much to the film except in the terms of extra dialogue. There is a total of 21 minutes of footage here.

There are two documentaries here. The first is Behind The Scenes Of John Q, and is a 17-minute look into the production. It is the usual making of PR stuff, with cast interviews discussing their characters, as well as the filmmakers` motivations in making the film. The second documentary is Fighting For Care and lasts 35 minutes. It looks in detail at the American healthcare system and the way it fails the demographic I mentioned. It is a serious look at the same subject that the film covers, and I found it more food for thought than the film itself. It`s perhaps the best thing on the disc.

Finally there is the audio commentary (DD 2.0) from the Director Nick Cassavetes, Kimberly Elise, who starred as Denise Archibald and producer Mark Burg among others. The commentary is of the usual standard of these affairs, but given my reaction to the film, hearing these people praise and extol their work was a little too much for me.

All except the commentary have English subtitles. This film has some 4 soundtracks including the commentary and the footage amounts to almost 3½ hours in total. I feel that this amount of data has resulted in the poor visual quality of the film and is a telling endorsement of the splitting of Fellowship Of The Ring across 2 discs.

Conclusion

You may be under the impression that I was less than impressed with John Q. Let me set the record straight, John Q is a stinker and should be avoided. With such a controversial premise and there is no denying, a brilliant cast who give excellent performances, John Q should have been an unqualified success. However John Q is laden with a dismal and clichéd script and Nick Cassavetes direction is just as creaky and wooden. The characters that this excellent cast are asked to portray are hopelessly one-dimensional, any connection that the audience can make with these people is down to the performances alone. How Denzel Washington and Robert Duvall managed to utter such dismal dialogue, yet still instil there characters with human warmth I will never know.

Denzel Washington is John Quincy Archibald and portrays the hard working everyman with his customary skill and panache. Robert Duvall plays the aging hostage negotiator who must deal with the situation, but in the typical Hollywood cliché, must work around the Golden Boy Police Chief Monroe, played by Ray Liotta who wants to go in with all guns blazing. Anne Heche plays the hospital administrator who must deny Mike Archibald treatment and consequently she has to be a bitch. James Woods plays Dr Turner, an Armani wearing cardiac surgeon, who is more concerned with his income than the Hippocratic oath, in other words an asshole. Naturally these vicious moneygrubbers will reveal hearts of gold before the film ends.

Cliché! That is the second biggest crime in this film. I feel that I have seen this story a hundred times before, a kid desperately needing an operation, a father praying for a miracle against the odds. I`ve already described the characters somewhat; the situations are just as hackneyed. A montage of scenes, against which a calculator tots up the running total, punctuates the desperate search for cash. They are told that that their son will die if his blood pressure falls below a certain level, so cue parents at child bedside trying to keep their hopes up, when the BP monitor drops another digit and the ominous music starts playing and mum blinks back tears.

The biggest crime has to be the sheer implausibility of the film. Picture the scene, you are at an A&E waiting for treatment, when a gunman burst in demanding treatment for his son, takes everyone hostage and seals off the department. What do you do? I don`t think you`ll enter into conversation with your tormentor, let alone be joking with him, or be discussing the unfairness of the healthcare system with your fellow captives while your captor mopes away in a corner somewhere. In all likelihood you will be terrified and praying for deliverance. Yet John Q wants us to believe the above state of affairs Not only that, but our hero will not only look to find treatment for his son, but he will help his hostages at the same time. Judging by the deleted scenes this film would have been even worse in this respect but that is hard to believe.

John Q wastes a great cast and promising idea, with a pathetic script and some bad, bad, bad dialogue. The ending is weak to say the least and the whole film is unbelievable schmaltz of the worst kind. In reality medicine is a balance between available resources and patient requirements and doctors must make decisions like this all the time. If this story were told well it would be brilliant as well as relevant.