John Q.

From its opening scene, this shamelessly manipulative melodrama feels as if director Nick Cassavetes put a choke leash around the viewer's neck so he can give it a good, hard yank whenever he wants the audience to feel something. Denzel Washington stars as an uninsured factory worker who takes hostages in a hospital emergency room in order to get his dying son a heart transplant. Anne Heche and Ray Liotta play a cartoonishly callous hospital administrator and a tough-on-crime police chief, James Woods is an inimically blunt doctor that Washington wins over, and Robert Duvall serves as the stock sympathetic police negotiator. John Q. is narrated by a tabloid TV newsman who offers up the blow-by-blow as crowds gather outside the police barricades, cheering for Washington as if they're at a college football game (yeah, right!). Naturally, Washington is great in the title role, but the movie too often plays the audience for chumps, rubbing onions in our eyes to make us cry and insulting our intelligence by reducing the complexities of human sentiment to Pavlovian button pushing. Not recommended. [Note: The DVD release includes a scene-specific commentary featuring director Nick Cassavettes (who talks about his personal relations to the material), screenwriter James Kearns, producer Mark Burg, cinematographer Rogier Stoffers, and star Kimberly Elise; a 17-minute "making of" with cast and crew; three deleted scenes; a "pop-up" fact track option for related history and trivia; and--most impressive--a 35-minute documentary entitled "Fighting for Life," featuring heart transplant patients and medical practitioners addressing issues related to the monumental costs and shortage of donor organs. Bottom line: A solid extras package for a miserable film.] (R. Blackwelder)