[6]

Nick Stahl (Carnivale, Terminator 3) and Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, The Conjuring) star in this intimate, slightly bizarre character drama from writer/director Carlos Brooks. Stahl plays a wheelchair-bound New York City radio reporter researching a subculture of “paraplegic wannabes,” people who pretend to be wheelchair bound or even go so far as to pay doctors to remove healthy limbs. Quid Pro Quo isn’t really a topical expose, though. Consider that a red herring. Instead, it focuses squarely on the two main characters, both of whom seem to be interrogating and infatuated with each other. Stahl is always good (and sorely missed; I hope he comes back to good health and acting soon), but Farmiga is amazing here. She’s at turns sweetly disarming, freakishly offputting, and eventually a little bit terrifying. You may not understand how one character could be so many different things, but as Quid Pro Quo‘s screenplay continues peeling back layers, her character makes more and more sense.