John Q

Directed by Nick Cassavetes, John Q follows Denzel Washington’s John Archibald as he holds an emergency room hostage after his son (Daniel E. Smith’s Mike) is refused treatment for his heart condition. Filmmaker Cassavetes, working from James Kearns’ screenplay, delivers a less-than-subtle yet predominantly engrossing drama that benefits from its raft of eye-catching, captivating performances, as star Washington offers up a consistently spellbinding turn that goes a long way towards smoothing over the narrative’s bumps and lulls – with the actor’s top-notch efforts matched by a stacked roster of such above-average periphery players as Anne Heche, James Woods, Ray Liotta, and Robert Duvall. And while the picture’s politics are generally employed to almost comically heavy-handed effect, John Q‘s surfeit of compelling sequences, including a terrific confrontation between Liotta and Duvall’s respective characters, pave the way for an increasingly enthralling midsection that builds towards a satisfying, memorable final stretch – with the end result a solid drama that ultimately fares a whole lot better than one might’ve anticipated.

***1/2 out of ****