John Quincy Archibalds son Michael collapses while playing baseball as a result of heart failure. John rushes Michael to a hospital emergency room where he is informed that Michaels only hope is a transplant. Unfortunately Johns insurance wont cover his sons transplant. Out of options John Q. takes the emergency room staff and patients hostage until hospital doctors agree to do the transplant.
Review
In this movie with a great acting of Denzel Washington as John Q. I felt the deep problems of health in the USA. My cousin lives in the United States (i don't) and she told me a few complaints about this problem in the movie i finally understood about that. I don't understand how the most powerful country in the world does have such bad health services to it's people. For the benefit of the Americans i hope that they change this system soon. Denzel puts his hearth on this movie playing a normal guy with financial problems and a hard work the way that Denzel shows his love to his son is remarkable and demonstrates why he is one of the actual best actors in Hollywood. If you have seen Searching for David's Hearth (2004) this is as the other side of the story.
About the Movie Denzel Washington plays John Quincy Archibald (John Q.) a husband and father with some financial problems that works almost 20 hours a day on a factory but who can't afford his expenses. John is trying to get a second job in order to earn an extra money. In the middle of this John's son Mike (Daniel E. Smith) is found to have a disease caused by a bigger than normal heart and the doctors told him that he will die soon if they don't make a heart transplant. Here everything is hard but it gets really harder when John goes to the insurance company and get the notice that his insurance suddenly don't cover this type of procedures. John and his wife Denise (Kimberly Elise) start to make everything possible to collect the money (a lot of money) needed just to get his son on the donor's list with their son dying an not much money John desperate and takes the hospital's emergency room staff and patients hostage demanding for to his son to be put on that list and that doctors do the transplant. The story evolves emotionally deep trough all this in a remarkable script.
About the Cast Denzel Washington put his soul onto this role being by far the best of all!! Kimberly Elise does good too but a little exaggerated sometimes Daniel Smith as Mike is pretty poor in his acting he didn't had to do that much but this kid (sorry) still isn't a good actor he has years to perfect his performance. James Woods acting as Dr. Raymond Turner as always is very good and professional also Anne Hache as Rebbeca Payne is great and show a coldness that ripped me out. Robert Duvall acting is good but his character could have been deployed even more for the good of the film. Ray Liotta does good Eddie Griffin is good too as one of the characters of the emergency room (Wow this was a great cast!)
810! Excellent for Denzel Washington performance!