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Quid Pro Quo

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 13 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 7 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Carlos Brooks
Directed by: Carlos Brooks
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 13, 2008
Running Time: minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Nick Stahl, Vera Farmiga, and Aimee Mullins
Isaac Knott is a Public Radio reporter in New York City. When he was eight, his mother and father died in an automobile accident that left him in a wheelchair. On air, Isaac recounts how he recently received an anonymous tip from someone identified only as "Ancient Chinese Girl." She tells him a perfectly able-bodied man walked into an emergency ward downtown, and attempted to bribe a doctor into amputating his leg. As Isaac investigates the eerie tip, he encounters Fiona who, through her own quandary, leads Isaac to a netherworld of people afflicted with a perverse desire to be disabled. Like a contemporary noir detective film, Quid Pro Quo follows Isaac as he embarks on a dream-like journey to pull back the layers of what makes people feel whole. (Magnolia Pictures)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Variety Justin Chang
A strikingly original and provocative first feature from scribe-helmer Carlos Brooks.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
The story eventually resolves itself a little too neatly, but it never devolves into a freak show or a fable, thanks in large part to Farmiga and Stahl's deft, quirky performances.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
This warped masochistic cousin to David Cronenberg's "Crash" - not to be confused with the Oscar winner of the same name - is well worth seeing for Farmiga's stunning performance.
Read Full Review >Premiere Jenni Miller
Fans of strange love stories and detective thrillers would do well to investigate this indie gem.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
Stahl and Farmiga give layered, restrained performances that keep what might have been a schlock fest with an improbable twist ending from devolving into trashiness. Instead, Brooks and his actors manage to render an involving and thoughtful story from some pretty dubious material.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
The first half of Quid Pro Quo is among the most jaw-dropping things I"ve ever seen: Who knew there was a closeted subculture of people pretending to be paraplegics?
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
After spinning out metaphors of paralysis and eroticism in its characters' feverish imaginations, Quid Pro Quo decides at the last minute that it has to explain everything. The moment it pulls away from the fantastic, it lands with a thud.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jean Oppenheimer
Farmiga is captivating, Stahl less so--although a bigger problem is writer/director Carlos Brooks's script, which sets up one story, then shifts gears into something more personal and psychologically specific. That's normally a plus, deepening the viewer's sense of involvement, but the transition here is bumpy and, ultimately, unconvincing.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Stahl quietly plays the straight man, giving the usually skillful Farmiga plenty of room to overact with abandon; she plays her character as one part Rosanna Arquette in David Cronenberg's "Crash" to two parts Natalie Portman's magical life-saving pixie in "Garden State."
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Quid Pro Quo, a bizarre but audacious debut feature by Carlos Brooks.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
If you were a fan of David Cronenberg's "Crash," based on J.G. Ballard's book about people who get sexually excited by auto accidents, you might just be the target audience for Quid Pro Quo, a perverse psychological drama.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
While a good director can spin a worthy movie from any subject, first-timer Carlos Brooks does surprisingly little with the jaw-dropper of a topic he chose.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Reyhan Harmanci
Quid Pro Quo, billed as a "neo-noir" about a paraplegic journalist drawn into a shadowy world of disability fetishists, is choked by allegory and pretension. It's an O. Henry tale gone wrong.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jay H. gave it a6:
Nick Stahl is an amazing actor, I think he will be a well know actor one day. The story is good, well directed and interesting. Beautifully photographed, stylishly done, and very well acted.
Abasios gave it a9:
An excellent independent movie dealing with a difficult subject area - BIID, abasiophilia, disability wannabes and devotees - that few understand. The movie treats the subject matter in a non-sensational way and the acting and drama are superb. This deserves a much wider showing than the artsy cinema circuits in which such movies are usually confined. This movie beats Hollywood fodder hands down and comes over more in the style of the better European movies.
