Quid Pro Quo - Trauma Disguised As Sociological Pathology

Jun

26

Quid Pro Quo - Trauma Disguised As Sociological Pathology

≡ Category: Drama, Movie Reviews, United States, Worth A Look |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: United States
Genre: Drama
Director: Carlos Brooks
Year: 2008

Rating:

WORTH A LOOK

Quid Pro Quo has a pretty classic trash cinema hook: imagine that there is a group of people who fantasize that they’re paralyzed, who in fact go so far as to bribe doctors to cut off their healthy limbs. It doesn’t take too much imagination to spin that into a sleazy thriller, does it?

The whole concept reminds me of George Carlin’s take on anorexia and bulimia: “Somehow I can’t feel sorry for an anorexic, you know? Rich cunt, don’t wanna eat? Fuck her.” He goes on: “How do we come up with this shit in this country? Where do we get our values from? Bulimia — there’s another all-American disease. This has got to be the only country in the world that could have ever come up with bulimia. Got to be the only country where some people are digging in the dumpster for a peach pit and other people eat a nice meal and puke it up intentionally.”

I think Carlin’s point is that these sorts of neuroses only get a chance to develop in people who have too much time on their hands — people in rich countries. People in third world countries are too busy surviving to come up with crap like anorexia, bulimia and…being envious of people who are paralyzed.

So, you think you’re in for a sleazy thriller about dumbasses who want to cut off their own healthy body parts. Wrong.

Isaac (Nick Stahl) is a paraplegic radio talk show host who meets Fiona (Vera Farmiga), who has information about people who fantasize about becoming paralyzed. Little does he know that Fiona might have more in common with him than he could possibly imagine.

Nick Stahl’s portrayal is sensitive and doesn’t hit any false notes, but Vera Farmiga has the trickier job. She has to play someone who is seriously twisted, but still be sympathetic, even when she’s making terrible threats to Stahl’s character. Farmiga pulls it off in a spellbinding performance — too bad it’s not in a better movie.

Writer/director Carlos Brooks doesn’t deliver on the trashy premise of his movie, but what he substitutes isn’t profound enough to warrant the deception. Depending on your tolerance for mainstream cinema, you might feel a little cheated.

By the end of Quid Pro Quo, you’ll know a great deal more about Isaac and Fiona, but you will not have been thrilled or titillated the way the trailer promised, nor will the movie have answered the question of how ordinary people might develop the obsession to be paralyzed. Here’s another question, Mr. Brooks: why bring up a question if you have no intention of answering it? That’s known as bait and switch. It’s also called copping out.