With Sleepwalking and Quid Pro Quo, Nick Stahl quietly continues his career of interesting choices. Here, he plays a young reporter for National Public Radio who has been paralyzed since a car accident he had as a boy, in which his parents were killed. He gets wind of a story about a shadowy group of people who share a strange compulsion to either be paralyzed, or at least to live in wheelchairs, oxygen masks, or the like. The group proves difficult to penetrate, and Stahl’s only contact is a woman (Vera Farmiga) who considers herself to be the ultimate extreme of this compulsion. The two begin a strange, winding, and twisty relationship, which, to me, proved very satisfying, and is another recent example of independent filmmaking nourishment.
Drama/Thriller
Rated R
DVD Release Date: 8/19/08