YMMV / John Q.

• Anvilicious: Obviously, the film's main target is the American health care system, but there are also transparent statements against politicians, gun culture, corporate media, and low tax-motivated voters.
• Critical Dissonance: The movie garnered a 25% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes due to the aforementioned Anviliciousness of its message but received a 78% audience score, with reviews both good and bad from critics and audiences agreeing that Denzel Washington's performance carried the entire film.
• Designated Hero: The audience is supposed to be cheering John on, but he does a lot of very morally questionable things. He takes an entire hospital waiting room hostage (which leads to a patient almost dying), he makes doctors work on people at gunpoint (the gun may not have been loaded, but the doctors certainly didn't know that), and he essentially steals a heart from someone else, who will then die because they couldn't find a heart. And on top of that, he never questions his actions or feels any regret about what he's doing. Instead, he keeps insisting that what he's doing is right, and chews anyone out who doesn't agree with him. Not only did this stunt waste the police's time and the taxpayer's money, but he also endangered the lives of dozens of people and most likely inspired dozens of copycats, but the audience is not supposed to think about this, because he's the protagonist.
  • That could be the point of the film (see above): explore this scenario in a movie where things work out ideally; no one dies, the patient is saved, and the hostage taker gives themself up peacefully to make a statement, rather than wait for it to real-life where nearly anything could go wrong.
• Funny Moments: When the abusive boyfriend gets what was coming to him. Particularly when the Groin Attack prompts a mass Share the Male Pain reaction from the other men in the room ... and an outburst of laughter from the lady doctor.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The death of Anne Heche from a car crash, like the woman at the beginning of the movie, and being on life support while an organ is needed, like Michael was for most of the movie.
• Strawman Has a Point: At one point, the hospital administrator points out to the police that they cannot, under any circumstances, give John what he wants, or else there would be "guns in every hospital". Despite the fact that John does get exactly what he wants, because he took hostages, this is never brought up again.
  • However, John does get arrested and will be facing jail-time, albeit a more lenient sentence than one would normally get. And more importantly, John's gun was unloaded for most of the hostage situation and no one was truly at risk of being killed..

---