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Video: 'John Q' is mismanaged health scare
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 18, 2002
John Q (PG-13)
[Photo: New Line Cinema]
Denzel Washington’s son needs a heart transplant. John Q needs a reality transplant.
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Denzel Washington plays a financially strapped family man whose son requires a heart transplant. However, red tape from his insurance plan and pushy hospital administrators (James Woods, Anne Heche) mean the surgery may not happen in time. The angry father takes an emergency room full of patients hostage to save his son's life in a slick rabble-rouser from director Nick Cassavetes (She's So Lovely).
First impressions: "Cassavetes stacks the deck like a card shark, turning violence and intimidation into justified behavior. He takes isolated cases of HMO abuses and unfeeling caretakers and makes them seem like the norm. James Kearns' screenplay makes each character a mouthpiece for agitprop. The message is clear: Next time you have a medical problem, bring your insurance card and a pistol.
"That's too bad, since John Q begins with promise, deftly sketching a dual-income household that can't make ends meet, strained but smiling. Washington makes a great father, a little unnerved by demotions and repossessions, and Kimberly Elise is effective as a barely steady mom. Young Daniel E. Smith is a believable screen kid, completing a credible family dynamic."
Second thoughts: The film's box office popularity during this year's awards season may have benefitted Washington's successful Oscar campaign for Training Day.
Rental audience: Washington's fan base, irate HMO patients.
Rent it if you enjoy: The Hospital, Article 99, Dog Day Afternoon.
Pinero (R)
Benjamin Bratt (TV's Law and Order, Miss Congeniality) is barely recognizable as poet/playwright Miguel Pinero, whose art was influenced by his wild life and which, in turn, influenced today's hip-hop and rap musicians. After years in prison, Pinero writes the Tony-nominated play Short Eyes, then sinks into drug-induced oblivion.
First impressions: "This rise and fall of a self-destructive artist is so familiar it's an immediate cliche. That it really happened doesn't automatically make it good drama.
"What we want to know about Pinero, I'd venture, is what we don't know, or don't expect. Writer-director Leon Ichaso gives us a barrage of impressions about Pinero, but rarely any insight. The movie's a sort of free-form riff, full of visual fandango. But his film isn't atmospheric evocation, it's a mishmash of a mosaic." (Desson Howe, Washington Post)
Second thoughts: Barely released in theaters, the film still won American Latino Media Arts prizes for outstanding actor, screenplay and picture.
Rental audience: Theater aficionados, art film enthusiasts.
Rent it if you enjoy: Basquiat, Before Night Falls.
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