This is one of those "puzzle movies" where all the pieces of the story are supposed to come together at the end and blow your mind. Unfortunately, some of the pieces to this puzzle don't fit and some of them are missing.
Isaac Knot (Nick Stahl) was paralyzed from the waist down in a car crash that killed his parents when he was eight. He's working for a New York City public radio station when he receives an anonymous tip about a man walking into an emergency room and asking a doctor to cut his perfectly healthy leg off. While investigating, Isaac is led to a very weird support group. It's for healthy people who want to be paralyzed. These folks are described as "paralyzed people trapped in the bodies of walking people". Now, the movie doesn't make any attempt to explain this condition, except to make pretty darn obvious analogies to being homosexual or transgendered. If you find the comparison of being gay or the need to become the opposite sex to wishing you were crippled to be somewhat insulting, you definitely want to avoid Quid Pro Quo.
Anyway, Isaac eventually meets his anonymous tipster. It's a woman named Fiona (Vera Farmiga). She wants to be paralyzed and reaches out to Isaac to try and understand her own desires. The two of them start a romantic relationship, during which Fiona gets closer and closer to "coming out" in public with her paralysis compulsion and Isaac finds a pair of magic shoes that allow him to walk. No, I'm not joking. He finds a pair of magic shoes that allow him to walk. If you stop reading this review right now because you've decided there's no chance in hell you'll even watch this film, I'll understand.
Fiona steals Isaac's magic shoes and says she won't give them back unless Isaac fulfills her need and helps paralyze her. At this point it becomes clear that this story was only ever about the bizarre and mysterious relationship between the two lead characters and not the subject of paralysis. The whole sub-culture of paralysis wannabes was nothing more than a red herring. There is an actual disorder about folks who wants parts of their body cut off, but apparently the whole "wanting to be paralyzed" thing is completely made up.
I'm now going to reveal Quid Pro Quo's really big plot twist. If you weren't turned off by the whole "paralyzed=gay/transgendered" thing and still have any desire to watch this film, stop reading now. After I go into this story element, there will be very little left about the movie for you to possibly enjoy.
Ready?
Isaac isn't physically paralyzed. It's all in his head and is referred to as "hysterical paralysis". The shoes aren't actually magic, they're just a excuse his brain locks onto to stop pretending. This is where we get into this film being a puzzle that's incomplete and unfinished. The revelation about Isaac is supposed to be a big deal, like the whole Keyser Soze bit in The Usual Suspects, where you suddenly look at the story in a totally different light but it isn't. That's because there's no explanation for why Isaac reacted to the crash that killed his parents by deluding himself into being crippled and there's no explanation for why a pair of shoes breaks down that psychological barrier. Those are hugely important pieces to this puzzle and you can't help but notice they're missing. So, while the movie thinks it's wowing you with its finished puzzle, you're not sure exactly what you're supposed to be impressed with. This film is like a guy with a Rubix Cube who has only got one side all the same color but tells you he's solved it.
There is another twist in the real connection between Isaac and Fiona, but I'll let the movie keep that secret. You'll probably see it coming anyway.
As far as the acting goes, Farmiga is fine in her individual scenes. Her character of Fiona, however, doesn't really add up. Isaac is more fully formed, but Stahl's performance is far too passive and empty to make us care about him. I think he was trying to pace himself, so that when Isaac does show some life it's more striking. The character spends too much time being so calm and placid in the face of the odd and disturbing, though, that the audience has mentally disconnected from him before he ever acts up.
This story might have made a great half-hour episode for a Twilight Zone-type show. In that format, its shocking twist might have hit with enough force to keep you from noticing that it's pulled completely out of the filmmaker's butt. To stretch Quid Pro Quo out to over 80 minutes, so much superfluous, go-nowhere crap is chucked into the story that by the time you get to the be reveal it no longer has any power and leaves you wondering why you wasted your time on this film.
Isaac Knot (Nick Stahl) was paralyzed from the waist down in a car crash that killed his parents when he was eight. He's working for a New York City public radio station when he receives an anonymous tip about a man walking into an emergency room and asking a doctor to cut his perfectly healthy leg off. While investigating, Isaac is led to a very weird support group. It's for healthy people who want to be paralyzed. These folks are described as "paralyzed people trapped in the bodies of walking people". Now, the movie doesn't make any attempt to explain this condition, except to make pretty darn obvious analogies to being homosexual or transgendered. If you find the comparison of being gay or the need to become the opposite sex to wishing you were crippled to be somewhat insulting, you definitely want to avoid Quid Pro Quo.
Anyway, Isaac eventually meets his anonymous tipster. It's a woman named Fiona (Vera Farmiga). She wants to be paralyzed and reaches out to Isaac to try and understand her own desires. The two of them start a romantic relationship, during which Fiona gets closer and closer to "coming out" in public with her paralysis compulsion and Isaac finds a pair of magic shoes that allow him to walk. No, I'm not joking. He finds a pair of magic shoes that allow him to walk. If you stop reading this review right now because you've decided there's no chance in hell you'll even watch this film, I'll understand.
Fiona steals Isaac's magic shoes and says she won't give them back unless Isaac fulfills her need and helps paralyze her. At this point it becomes clear that this story was only ever about the bizarre and mysterious relationship between the two lead characters and not the subject of paralysis. The whole sub-culture of paralysis wannabes was nothing more than a red herring. There is an actual disorder about folks who wants parts of their body cut off, but apparently the whole "wanting to be paralyzed" thing is completely made up.
I'm now going to reveal Quid Pro Quo's really big plot twist. If you weren't turned off by the whole "paralyzed=gay/transgendered" thing and still have any desire to watch this film, stop reading now. After I go into this story element, there will be very little left about the movie for you to possibly enjoy.
Ready?
Isaac isn't physically paralyzed. It's all in his head and is referred to as "hysterical paralysis". The shoes aren't actually magic, they're just a excuse his brain locks onto to stop pretending. This is where we get into this film being a puzzle that's incomplete and unfinished. The revelation about Isaac is supposed to be a big deal, like the whole Keyser Soze bit in The Usual Suspects, where you suddenly look at the story in a totally different light but it isn't. That's because there's no explanation for why Isaac reacted to the crash that killed his parents by deluding himself into being crippled and there's no explanation for why a pair of shoes breaks down that psychological barrier. Those are hugely important pieces to this puzzle and you can't help but notice they're missing. So, while the movie thinks it's wowing you with its finished puzzle, you're not sure exactly what you're supposed to be impressed with. This film is like a guy with a Rubix Cube who has only got one side all the same color but tells you he's solved it.
There is another twist in the real connection between Isaac and Fiona, but I'll let the movie keep that secret. You'll probably see it coming anyway.
As far as the acting goes, Farmiga is fine in her individual scenes. Her character of Fiona, however, doesn't really add up. Isaac is more fully formed, but Stahl's performance is far too passive and empty to make us care about him. I think he was trying to pace himself, so that when Isaac does show some life it's more striking. The character spends too much time being so calm and placid in the face of the odd and disturbing, though, that the audience has mentally disconnected from him before he ever acts up.
This story might have made a great half-hour episode for a Twilight Zone-type show. In that format, its shocking twist might have hit with enough force to keep you from noticing that it's pulled completely out of the filmmaker's butt. To stretch Quid Pro Quo out to over 80 minutes, so much superfluous, go-nowhere crap is chucked into the story that by the time you get to the be reveal it no longer has any power and leaves you wondering why you wasted your time on this film.