John Q

Recent Oscar winner Washington plays the eponymous character, John Quincy Archibald, a family man who has fallen on hard times. When his son Mike suffers from heart failure at a baseball game, John Q rushes him off to hospital. Soon after he arrives, he realises that - due to his financial dire straits - his health insurance won't cover the operation. In a bid to make the health administrators see sense, John inexplicably takes a group of people hostage at the hospital and won't surrender until his son is taken care of.

One of those films that wears its heart firmly stitched onto its sleeve, John Q is a preachy, moralistic tale, which despite some honourable intentions, drowns under the weight of its own self-importance. Ham fisted and forced, there's no room for any moral ambiguity in the script. Instead a righteous tone (which soon descends into melodrama with a capital 'M') permeates virtually scene of the film, leaving no stone of mawkishness unturned. As you'd expect from seasoned pros like Washington, Duvall, Woods and Liotta, the performances are of a pretty high standard. But it's a pity the same can't be said for the overall film.