I wanted Quid Pro Quo to develop into something at every turn, but it just never gels. It's a great 20-page short story that can't sustain 82 minutes of life on the big screen.
Comment
06/13/08
Quid Pro Quo (2008)
61
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:33
Fresh:20
Rotten:13
Average Rating:5.9/10
Consensus: Despite a stunning performance by Vera Farmiga, Quid Pro Quo never develops its effective parts into a convincing whole.
Runtime: 82 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Quid Pro Quo is a dark, puzzling tale of strangers who crash into one another's lives and transform them forever. Isaac, a paraplegic, is a popular New York City public-radio reporter who is... [More]
Starring: Nick Stahl, Vera Farmiga, Aimee Mullins, Leonardo Nam
Director: Carlos Brooks
Reviews for Quid Pro Quo
Brooks has no idea how to pace his irritatingly giddy script, and the film feels overlong at 82 minutes.
06/13/08
If you needed to find something -- anything -- redeeming about Carlos Brooks’s ridiculous romantic thriller, you can at least credit it for not sticking to the paths most traveled.
06/11/08
While a good director can spin a worthy movie from any subject, first-timer Carlos Brooks does surprisingly little with the jaw-dropper of a topic he chose.
06/13/08
Farmiga is captivating, Stahl less so -- although a bigger problem is writer/director Carlos Brooks's script, which sets up one story, then shifts gears into something more personal and psychologically specific.
06/11/08
[Director] Brooks plunges into the thick of a largely unfamiliar subculture in Quid Pro Quo, but the journey involves a series of well-telegraphed twists and turns.
06/12/08
Brooks tiptoes into territory Luis Bunuel would have frolicked in, but he does so without the master surrealist's desire to outrage and confound his viewers.
06/13/08
Top CriticIn fact, "Quid Pro Quo" is not at all funny, merely occasionally sarcastic, its plot a succession of half-baked pop-psych speculations and its dialogue a glib sampling of sub-Diablo Cody incredibility
08/08/09
Might work if it was really about what it's really about, but its too-tricky script has too many paths that lead nowhere.
06/12/08
A bleakly humorous romantic character study, Quid Pro Quo is appealingly offbeat until its narrative takes a wayward detour into pat simplifications.
06/10/08
If you were a fan of David Cronenberg's Crash, you might just be the target audience for Quid Pro Quo, a perverse psychological drama about able-bodied people who yearn to become disabled.
06/13/08
Its biggest mystery is how it was financed (by Texas trillionaire and Dallas Maverick owner Mark Cuban, no less) and selected for distribution.
10/18/08
Quid Pro Quo hovers in a noir-shaded twilight zone where repressed memories and guilt merge in an obsession with physical and emotional paralysis.
06/13/08
Top CriticThe film is lightest on its feet when it shakes off the Red Shoe Diaries foreboding for moments of sly irony
06/13/08
Strikingly original and spectacularly twisted, Quid Pro Quo is a gem. Two outstanding performances from Nick Stahl and Vera Farmiga provide riveting viewing
10/18/08
The movie exerts a certain appeal without ever being convincing.
06/13/08
Quid Pro Quo is a respectable feature-film debut for Mr. Brooks, and it remains reasonably thought-provoking without ever becoming emotionally absorbing.
06/11/08
Very deftly made, with some lovely cinematography and two quirky, engaging lead performances, it's a satisfying debut.
06/20/08
This odd little fugue of a movie would be implausible, even laughable, if it weren't also marvelously played, visually composed and plotted with the utmost cunning.
06/13/08
It frustratingly refuses to go bonkers, but the film is a compelling sit, brought to life by two very crafty, pointed performances.
06/12/08
Latest News for Quid Pro Quo
August 11, 2008:
Not exactly Bunuel's differently abled erotica classic Tristana, it raises mystifying questions about disability as a state of mind. And whether or not the final clues to this mind over matter mystery reside in sex, shoes or tulips, hypochondriacs beware. 
More...
June 19, 2008:
Why would anyone have an erotic compulsion to become physically handicapped?
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June 16, 2008:
Not exactly Bunuel's differently abled erotica classic Tristana, it raises mystifying questions about disability as a state of mind. And whether or not the final clues to this mind over matter mystery reside in sex, shoes or tulips, hypochondriacs beware.
More...
May 18, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review
More...
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