Review

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? Nick Stahl is a paralyzed NPR reporter who wheels around in search of the real story; Vera Farmiga is the femme fatale who’s into spokes. Director Carlos Brooks’s script is lovingly strange—until the climactic revelation, which we’ve seen creaking toward us for some time. The movie is best when it’s most open-ended. But Farmiga is—as usual—scarily good. Her madness isn’t something out of the ether. She’s always visibly calculating, thinking better of something reckless she’s about to do—then doing it anyway. It’s a very erotic portrait if you’ve ever yearned to be flattened by a kamikaze wheelchair-driver. — David Edelstein

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New York Magazine Reviews

• David Edelstein's Full Review (6/16/08)