Considering the plot of "John Q", I am actually surprised something like this hasn't happened already. The film is about every parent's nightmare...and their little boy is dying and in need of a heart transplant. However, the father's insurance won't cover it and the hospital seems a bit indifferent to the family's plight. So, as the hospital is about to just discharge the boy to go home to die, the desperate father (Denzel Washington) does something which shows just how desperate he is...he takes the Emergency Room hostage! And, he threatens to kill the people there unless his son is placed on the transplant list.

About 75% of the film takes place in the Emergency Room and it makes for a very tense story. It also is a film that will rip your guts out as you watch, and I strongly recommend you see this with some Kleenex nearby. The scene where the little boy collapses early in the film is a real tearjerker!!

Overall a very interesting story (despite a few plot holes*) and some very good acting. Well worth seeing and very well made.

*The biggest plot hole is that they could have SAID the boy was now on the recipient list and not bothered to add him. After all, otherwise this might encourage other desperate folks to do as John Q did in the film! And you would have thought John would have considered this.

In Chicago, John Quincy Archibald (Denzel Washington) and wife Denise (Kimberly Elise) are struggling financially. Their son Mike collapses at the baseball game. Rebecca Payne (Anne Heche) is the hospital president and Dr. Raymond Turner (James Woods) is their cardiac surgeon. Mike needs a heart transplant but the HMO won't cover the minimum $250k. They can't get any help no matter how hard they try. In desperation, an armed John takes over the emergency room. Police Lt. Frank Grimes (Robert Duvall) negotiates with him.

It's an over-the-edge melodrama. The problem is that everything is pushed to the edge. Denzel is crying in the first 15 minutes. I appreciate the message but it's lost in the montage of frustration. Denzel is pushing so hard to be hyper angry that it's difficult to root for him. If Denzel and Kimberly could calm down early on, the audience could embrace them. In fact, everybody seems to be yelling in this movie. It's a hard movie to like.

"John Q" was the first movie with which I'm familiar that looked at the health care situation in this country. Too bad that it had so many inaccuracies. The plot of course has economically strapped John Quincy Archibald (Denzel Washington) taking a hospital hostage to demand medical treatment for his son.

But, like I said, they misrepresented a number of things too many to enumerate here. But this movie's strength is looking at the disastrous effects of letting insurance companies run our health care system. You just may want to move to Canada after seeing this (although I haven't moved there). Also starring Kimberly Elise, James Woods, Anne Heche, Robert Duvall, and Ray Liotta.