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John Q is Denzel Washington's latest project, a story of a hardworking yet poor father who sees his son collapse playing baseball. He rushes the boy to the hospital, where he discovers the boy has a rare congenital heart condition and requires a heart transplant immediately. At this point, Washington's character discovers his insurance won't cover the procedure, which costs over a quarter-million dollars and that the hospital won't perform the operation since he can't afford it. John Q becomes bitter and desperate and takes a group of people at the hospital hostage, threatening to kill them unless the operation is performed on his son. What follows is a tense hostage drama, as the press finds out about the crisis and becomes sympathetic to the plight of the man undone by everything wrong with the current health insurance system and bottom-line hospital financing.

Like all of Washington's Oscar-quality work, the cast here is frontline, led by former Best Actor winner Robert Duvall, Anne Heche, Eddie Griffin, James Woods and Ray Liotta. The film's assault on a hot-button issue like health insurance could work as well as Helen Hunt's HMO rant did in As Good As It Gets. In fact, such a polarizing depiction of the flaws inherent in the current administration could carry the film to long legs and Oscar glory. Unfortunately, it has been pushed back to February and if that date holds, it's going to miss the 2001 campaign and Oscar members don't have memories long enough to laud it in 2002.

Vital statistics for John Q Main Cast Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, James Woods Supporting Cast Ron Annabelle, Gabriela Oltean, Anne Heche, Eddie Griffin, Daniel E. Smith Director Nick Cassavetes Screenwriter James Kearns Distributor New Line Cinema Trailer Click Here for Trailer Official Site http://www.iamjohnq.com/ Rating PG-13 Running Time 116 minutes Screen Count 2,505 Talent in red has entry in The Big Picture

Comparison films for John Q
Title	Date	Opening	Adjusted Opening	Screens	PSA	Adj PSA	Total BO	Adjusted Total	Mult
Remember the Titans	9/29/00	20.91	23.39	1865	11212.00	12064.9	115.60	129.32	5.53
Bone Collector, The	11/5/99	16.71	19.91	2590	6452.00	7366.5	66.49	79.23	3.98
Siege, The	11/6/98	13.93	17.90	2541	5482.00	6779.4	40.93	52.62	2.94
Fallen	1/16/98	9.15	11.76	2448	3738.00	4622.7	25.49	32.77	2.45
Hurricane, The	1/14/00	9.01	10.07	1465	6150.00	6617.8	50.67	56.68	4.43