5/5 smart film noir script/ great acting by nick stahl
  by Dennis Milam (Houston, Texas United States)
this is a smart little independent film noir, quite the intriguing mystery. the script is excellent and the direction/pacing is fine. the female lead, vera farmiga, is very good. nick stahl, the male lead, is incredible in this role. he gives a fine,fine performance and captures the confusion and hopes/fears of the character very well. this actor deserves more recognition than he gets. he is attractive-but-vulnerable and has a real film presence.

5/5 Unusual and highly effective
  by Kathleen E. Kelly (Albany, NY United States)
I bought this DVD because the HBO series Carnivale made me a Nick Stahl fan. I always find Nick's acting impressive; but I think this is the best of his recent films, and should have had a wide theatrical release. It's an offbeat, thought-provoking story (though not a "psychological thriller," as it's been misleadingly described).

In my purely personal opinion, the "deleted scenes" on the DVD should have been included in the film. I find myself wondering if their not having been included made the difference in someone's deciding whether to give it that wide theatrical release.

Another purely personal opinion: I found Vera Farmiga less interesting than Nick and the actress playing the young woman with whom he'd been in love. Most of that actress's role wound up in the "deleted scenes."

2/5 Great Preview of the Whole-Documentary
  by Daniel G. Lebryk
This film had a lot going for it initially; really cool voice over; beautiful visuals of, what we find out later, is a tulip field and red tulips; a twist and turn here and there; and flashbacks. About 20 minutes into the film it jumps the shark. The intrigue totally disappears, bad acting creeps in, and the story just doesn't hold together. Vera Farminga turns in one of the poorest performances I've seen in a long time, she appears to be reading her lines. Nick Stahl does a decent job as a parapalegic.

I really didn't care for this film at all. There was no intrigue, the mystery is so obvious. The payoff at the end is just sad. And the magic shoes... Ah, it was just really poor story telling and a mystery that just doesn't work.

The topic was intriguing. People that are able bodied but want to become handicapped. OK, that was understood about half way through this film. It's a way of life, not a disease or some sexual oddity. The trouble at the end of this film, it simply falls back into the stereotypes we all entered the film with. I'm not sure I learned or cared much by the time the hour and a half was up.

There is something really special about this DVD. The first 15 minutes of "Whole Documentary" is included in the special features. Now that film looks to be an incredible movie about this topic. Treated with care and love, without the awful back story and ending of Quid Pro Quo. Please go here to read reviews:
Whole
The film has a website www.whole-documentary.com.

The rest of the bonus features are pitiful, deleted scenes that should have never seen the light of day. And the casting call for Nick and Vera.

This is an R rated movie for no real reason. If the two scenes with Nick and Vera had been deleted (and the film wouldn't have suffered one bit) this would be PG. There is no nudity in either scene. I also take significant issue with the film cover. The woman in the wheel chair is not even in this film. It plays even heavier into the idea that this way of life is some bizare fetish. It's unfortunate to see how films are marketed.

I just can't recommend this film.

4/5 Strange and Fascinating Detective Story
  by Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States)
Helpful Note: Wikipedia definition: Quid pro quo (Latin for "something for something") indicates a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services.

Carlos Brooks makes an impressive debut as both writer and director of this little independent film QUID PRO QUO, a story that may make some viewers uncomfortable because of the subject matter, but an intelligent investigation of a subculture unknown to most and a script that leads to a surprising ending - if the viewer keeps thinking after the rolling credits are over!

Isaac (Nick Stahl) is a reporter for a small radio station, a role that gives him the opportunity to uncover novel human interest stories for his audience. Interestingly, Isaac is a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair since age 8 when he was the survivor of a car crash that killed both his parents. He has full function of most of his body, but cannot walk. Isaac receives an email from one 'Ancient Chinese Girl' that contains a message about a person who convinced a doctor to amputate a normal leg. Isaac is fascinated and sets out to investigate the story and eventually discovers the source of the email - one young and very beautiful Fiona (Vera Farmiga) - who introduces him to a subculture of people who want to be wheelchair bound: in a group meeting Isaac hears strange stories from a disparate group of people who meet to discuss their obsession with being paralyzed, their chance to be noticed and cared about as quasi-invalids who would go so far as having an amputation of a normal limb to enable their wheelchair dreams.

Isaac soon discovers that Fiona shares this obsession, demonstrates her secrets to Isaac, and the two begin to bond physically and emotionally. Isaac is the first person to see Fiona make her 'debut' in public in a wheelchair. They share lunch in a café and share their life experiences: Isaac confesses that he harbors foreshortened memory of his accident - his last memory is lying in the road seeing a young girl with red and white pompoms trying to save him. Isaac surprises himself (and shares his surprise with Fiona) when he buys a pair of 'Fred Astaire shoes', and upon trying them on, he is able to walk! Fiona's response is mixed - she is happy that Isaac is ambulatory but at the same time she is led to believe that Isaac's paralysis may be of an hysterical nature, that he really has never been paralyzed except as a reaction to the guilt he harbors about his parent's death and his sole survivorship of the accident. How these two people deal with the information as it develops provides a startling ending to this story, a detective mystery that in retrospect proves to have given us, the audience, countless clues throughout the film - clues only discovered in retrospect!

Both Nick Stahl and Vera Farmiga give vital performances, able to draw us in to their odd characters and make us care. There are many fine cameo roles - Kate Burton as Fiona's mother, James Frain as Isaac's priest friend, and all the members of the wannabe wheelchair bound group - and the cinematography by Michael McDonough is both appropriately claustrophobic indoors and transcendently beautiful in the tulip fields of Skagit Valley, WA used as the setting for the upstate New York accident location. Mark Mothersbaugh ties the moods of the film together with his expert musical score. This is a tough little film to watch, but a film that supplies much gratification and challenge. It is a fine debut for Carlos Brooks. Recommended. Grady Harp, August 08

3/5 Twisted little film that would look great in BD...
  by Steve Kuehl (Ben Lomond, CA)
This film keeps getting the trailer and media exposure of being another Crash-esque (1995) style film with a serious coverage of psychotic "wannabes" that wish for physical/medical impairments. And it almost appears that way in the beginning, but as you make it through all of those uncomfortable sexual moments what transpires is another come-to-terms film of emotional withholdings.

Vera Farmiga and Nich Stahl lead this film of exploration and in the end, twists of forgiveness and moving forward. Vera's performance was forced and seemed on fast forward at times, but she still looks elegant on the screen. Nick appears to be creating a name for himself so I would recommend the film especially for his fan base.

Technically, the intermittent flashbacks of tulip fields and the opening color montage during the credits would make for a great Blu display, but the remainder of the film is mostly filled with browns, silvers and darks. The DVD contains footage from the Whole documentary, deleted scenes, a tulip montage to some nice music, and most importantly - the alternate ending that was significantly better. Several ladies were watching this with me and they felt the film was ruined with the corny ending that is in the film now, but the alternate was much more appropriate and gave the whole (deleted) love story much needed closure.

I have noticed in other reviews that any topics touching the disabilities, psychosis, or challenges shown in the film spur ugly debates. Putting all of that aside, it is a watchable film with a good twist ending that should keep the masses slightly entertained.