'Quid Pro Quo'

Rating:

BY RAFER GUZMÁN | rafer.guzman@newsday.com

June 13, 2008

It sounds like one of David Cronenberg's yucky fantasies: A wheelchair-bound reporter explores a subculture of able-bodied people who yearn to be paralyzed, crippled, even limbless. Cronenberg might have told this tale with lots of queasy gore, but first-time writer-director Carlos Brooks turns "Quid Pro Quo" into something else: a finely observed, compelling drama with the creepy tinge of a thriller.

Nick Stahl plays Isaac Knott, a paraplegic since surviving a car crash as a child. He's a coper, not a complainer; he's also a moody cutie, which probably helps. His underworld journey eventually leads to Fiona, a smokin' hot and surprisingly funny blonde. Fiona (Vera Farmiga, the sexy therapist in "The Departed") has a thing not only for Isaac but for his wheelchair: She'd like to be in it.

As the plot tiptoes into increasingly unsettling territory, the actors react just as we do: with skepticism, cautious acceptance and, finally, amusement. "You are weirding me out," Fiona tells Isaac after one strange revelation, "and that is not easy to do."

PLOT A paraplegic young man meets a beautiful woman who happens to dig wheelchairs. (R)

CAST Nick Stahl, Vera Farmiga

LENGTH 1:22

PLAYING AT Sunshine Cinema, Manhattan

BOTTOM LINE Not perfect, but the smart dialogue and Farmiga’s terrific performance make for an unusual, absorbing drama.