Dreadfully Boring

Admirable film.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Set on the very fringes of underground society, Carlos Brooks' "Quid Pro Quo" is a humane and compassionate tale of non-handicapped people who have a pathological obsession with becoming either partially or totally disabled (or at least living their lives as if they were). In the most extreme cases, some will even go so far as to stage accidents, endure amputations or employ special drugs to turn their fantasy into reality. And, like anyone who's harboring a deep, dark secret from a critical world, these people are forced to live their lives in the closet, terrified that they will be rejected by those they care most about if they reveal the truth of who they really are inside.Isaac Knott (Nick Stahl) has been a paraplegic since he was a teen, the result of a car accident in which both his parents were killed. He's now a reporter for a local radio station and it is through an assignment for his work that he meets a group of able-bodied "wannabes," as well as an attractive young woman named Fiona (Vera Farmiga from "Up in the Air") who desperately wants to live life in a wheelchair and implores Isaac to help her achieve that goal.This quiet and gentle, though emotionally complex, film rises above its potentially tricky subject matter through insightful performances, sensitive writing, and a plot that nicely dovetails into itself in the second half. We discover that there's a great deal more to both Isaac and Fiona and their relationship than initially meets the eye, and those revelations go a long way towards deepening the theme and enhancing the characters.

The film has am extremely simple plot. Very young guy confined to wheelchair by hysterical paralysis mixed with partial traumatic amnesia produced by the parent-killing car wreck occurring years ago when he was a child meets but of course doesn't recognize young chick who drove the car that caused the accident and is now obsessed with the idea of becoming a paraplegic like him aka like the kid in the car she crashed into. This simplistic view of two "mental illnesses" gets dressed up with 1) obsessed chick arranging to meet (and sleep with, equally of course) wheelchair bound guy via the plot device of anonymously informing him of a human interest story (he is an NPR-radio-station-type reporter) 2) utterly stupid 'human interest story' (an urban legend style boffo about a bunch of people who "wannabe" paralyzed for no particular reason whatsoever) 3) "magic fred astaire shoes" (of course, again, the shoes are nothing more than a mental "crutch" the guy is subconsciously using to give himself a reason to walk... that enable wheelchair guy to walk...after falling down a lot, only very slowly, with crutches or a cane...sort of like you'd expect someone who has been working out to retard muscular atrophy but who hasn't stood or walked for years to behave when finally standing and walking... 3) a few couldabeengreat lines that came off as too silly to be taken half-seriously because of the trying-to-be-an-allegory but frankly rather silly plot. (Example: "I'm a paralyzed person trapped in a walking person's body." Sillier example: "wannabe" paralyzed to alleviate her guilt over putting the guy in a wheelchair chick says to him --seriously!!!-- after they discover his paralysis is actually hysterical: "Why would anyone wannabe paralyzed?") The story could have been very good. It was just so obvious about its allegory role and so silly in its urban legend depiction of the way guilt-ridden obsessed chick got into crash victim guy's bed that it kind of gut punched its own good qualities. The next effort probably will be decent.

I'm not gonna summarize what this film's about (cuz if you got this far you probably know---B.I.I.D.) What I will say is that the other posters are right, if you like the work of Cronenberg (especially "Crash" and "Dead Ringers"), but are disappointed with the Canadian filmmaker's more recent mainstream forays, you def. need to check this out.The other reason to see it is Vera Farmiga, an actress who has been working in the shadow of Cate Blanchett for years now, and who here takes on a role that Blanchett wouldn't dare touch.Underrated.

I saw this film on the closing night of Sundance, mostly because all the other films I wanted to see were sold out. I'm glad I went. Nick Stahl and Vera Farmiga dance adeptly around and through the film's premise, which is coaxed pleasantly out of a screenplay that writer-director Carlos Brooks has polished over seven years.Stahl plays a public radio reporter confined to a wheelchair since a childhood accident. While following a lead in a bizarre story, he meets Fiona (Farmiga), a mysterious woman who leads him into a reclusive subculture. At first, microphone in hand, he wants the story. But then a trip to a second-hand store for some shoes convinces him the story isn't what he thought it was.The Sundance catalogue billed it as a "psychological thriller," but in my opinion that misses the mark. Yes, we're introduced to some oddly quirky characters along the way. But Brooks bills is as a detective story, and that's how I think it's best approached. It's an exercise in restrained exposition that keeps the viewer guessing right up until the film's final scenes.As with most independent films, this one makes good use of small-scale locations and intimate moments. Even the Manhattan exteriors favor enclosed sidewalks and narrow passages. The cinematography, done on high-definition video, is crisply executed and richly textured with subtle but effective details. (The lustrous wallpaper in Fiona's apartment actually has its own screen credit.) The camera spends a great deal of time at the eye level of a wheelchair occupant, emphasizing the point of view and expanding the small spaces in which many of the film's scenes take place.Stahl and Farmiga drive a substantial portion of the film by themselves. Brooks admits that the their story took over the film as he shot and edited it. As a result the supporting ensemble retreats to the distance, a position from which performances from James Frain (as Stahl's mentor) and Michal Leamer (Fiona's mother) can give brief but memorable performances.Vera Farmiga creates a complex character whom you can't help loving, hating, and fearing all at the same time. Nick Stahl's performance stays even and understated until his veneer breaks apart and the detective story comes full circle.The only negative aspect to the film is the frank treatment of the subculture that frames the principal characters, not because the treatment is unfair or poorly executed, but because it's likely to take the average viewer by surprise. Look for wide release in May 2008.