Barnes & Noble

The often heartless injustices of corporate health care are at the forefront of this suspenseful melodrama, which packs an emotional wallop despite its occasional tendency to be shrill and didactic. Two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington, at the top of his game, is an unemployed working-class father who seizes control of a hospital emergency room in a desperate bid to secure previously denied treatment for his seriously ill son. James Woods portrays a glib surgeon who seems to lack compassion, and Anne Heche is positively chilling as an apparently soulless administrator. The script raises serious questions that aren’t always satisfactorily answered, but in establishing the hopelessness of Washington’s situation early on, it lends plausibility to the extreme course of action he subsequently takes. The film's effectiveness, though, hinges on Washington, who brings such forceful presence to the role that one can't help but get caught up in his cause. In addition to commentaries from director Nick Cassavetes (She’s So Lovely) and practically everybody else involved in the movie (except Washington, who's seen and heard in pre-release interview footage), this exceptional DVD presentation includes two documentaries, deleted and alternate scenes, and a wealth of information on the state of health care in America today. Much of this info appears as factoids that can be accessed throughout the movie via New Line’s Infinifilm technology. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

A national health care crisis in the United States yields this tense drama from screenwriter James Kearns and director Nick Cassavetes, who experienced a real-life dilemma with his daughter's congenital heart disease that mirrors the one in this film. Denzel Washington stars as John Q. Archibald, a factory worker facing financial hardship as a result of reduced hours in his workplace. When his young son, Michael (Daniel E. Smith), is stricken during a baseball game, John and his wife, Denise (Kimberly Elise), discover that their child is in need of an emergency heart transplant. Although the Archibalds have health insurance, they are informed by hospital administrator Rebecca Payne (Anne Heche) that their policy doesn't cover such an expensive procedure. Unable to raise the money himself, John persuades the hospital's compassionate cardiac surgeon, Dr. Raymond Turner (James Woods), to waive his lofty fee, but is still left with too much of a financial burden to bear. With no recourse but to take his son home to die, John snaps and holds the staff and patients of the hospital's emergency room hostage at gunpoint. John is soon a media hero, the focus of intense news coverage, even as police chief Gus Monroe (Ray Liotta) and hostage negotiator Frank Grimes (Robert Duvall) try to resolve the situation before it leads to bloodshed. Karl Williams

Los Angeles Times

At every turn it has the courage of its material. Kevin Thomas

San Francisco Examiner

Denzel Washington is so damn good, he's almost scary...I mean scary as in astonishing -- no, make that mesmerizing -- like some stupendous force of nature. Washington's extraordinarily precise, emotionally rich and powerfully persuasive performance blazes through the cliches and contrivances of James Kearns' blunt-spoken, heavy-handed screenplay, achieving near-miraculous levels of purity and truth. Joe Leydon

Product Details

• UPC: 794043546822
• Source: NEW LINE HOME VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound, Dolby Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Time: 1:52:00
• Sales Rank: 4,663

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Frequency & John Q. & Cellular (3pc)

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