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My BIID-centric review of Quid Pro Quo
Written by Gordo on Sunday, June 29, 2008
As some of you are aware, a movie called "Quid Pro Quo" came out recently, which uses BIID as a major component of its plotline. (I’ll try hard not to call it Squid Pro Row, ala "Austin Powers in Goldmember.") Most of this is a re-post of what I wrote for another BIID forum:
First of all, the script writer obviously did some research, which is good. However, from a BIID perspective, there are many faults or things to improve on.
First of all, the initial portrayals of people with BIID. While the interview with the nurse was pretty much dead-on in terms of how one would think about BIID, the initial (and pretty much the one and only) meeting between Isaac, the main character, and the BIID "group" is very misleading.
The BIID group is in a run-down part of town, in a dark, damp, musty basement. This part made me sigh a bit, because how many BIID people do you know would arrange to meet in a basement like that? How many would WANT to meet in a place like that? The basement actually looked closer to a dungeon you might find at a BDSM night club (and even so, it’d be grossly exaggerated). I’d actually prefer a meeting at welcoming places like White Spot, Boston Pizza or Milestones (decent regular/"normal" restaurant chains found here in Western Canada, sometimes seen as family restaurants), not some dark dungeon-like place.
While it was interesting to see that they included various forms of disabilities from the wannabes (including a character who was using a vent), that’s pretty much the only scene where they showed BIID in its various forms. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the scene ends with everyone walking out of the room. We do not see the BIID people all together at once ever again.
That part bothered me, because while the character of Fiona did an apt job of explaining things, we only get HER explanation, and that’s all the audience receives in terms of understanding BIID. And, as per her character, it’s hard to believe everything she says.
Another thing that bothered me was the reaction from the BIID group in the basement. When they find out that Isaac is a genuine paraplegic, their eyes stop blinking, they go wide and they ask the weirdest things. I’m sure some of us might be wondering the same questions, but personally, there is NO WAY in hell I would ask them point-blank like that. They showed us basically as those who treat paras more as objects than people, as if we would immediately worship paras like fanatics. (Which leads to the question: If we met up in real life in a group, and a genuine para joins us, what would we do or say? I’m sure the answer isn’t what was portrayed in the film.)
The physical appearance of the BIID group was also interesting, because none of those characters looked attractive, and most look like either like internet creeps or downright losers. One thing they seem to fail in showing is that people with BIID come from all walks of life (no pun intended). Some of us are rich, and some are poor. Some of us are athletic and some of us are skinny and wimpy-looking. Some of us are ugly and some of us are hot (I’m not going to reveal who from the BIID community I think is hot, lol). They could’ve had a pretty woman or a hunky guy somewhere in there, but they chose to have characters who don’t appear that attractive at all, or that high in social status.
The character of Fiona also bothered me, not because she’s creepy but because she seems like she does have BIID but also appears a bit psychopathic at times, such as when she steals Isaac’s shoes. One might chalk that up to the desperation we have to acquire disabilities, but there’s desperation and then there’s psychopathy. Fiona appears to belong more to the latter. As a result of this, it reflects also on the other people with BIID and makes THEM look a bit psychopathic too (not that they weren’t portrayed like that already, because they kind of were).
There are some one-liners that sounded downright cheesy ("I want to know what it’s like not to feel," "I already am paralyzed [inside]"), but I won’t comment on that since movies often have them.
This movie takes a very interesting approach, but I got the feeling that they went halfway through BIID and then stop without fully explaining it, which can potentially cause confusion and misunderstanding. It can potentially reflect poorly on the BIID community, causing us to be dismissed as "sick freaks who need help."
Tags: BIID, body identity integrity disorder, magnolia pictures, movie, Quid Pro Quo
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6 Comments
Interesting to read you find Fiona psychopathic - I think she’s downright abusive. The situation about her taking his shoes away is only one example. I don’t understand her motives at all, and I’ve seen the film twice by now (the second time attempting to understand her/the film better).
I must say I disagree about the people not being attractive - I think this film is closer to the Gaussian distribution than most others are. I think Fiona is attractive (even though I don’t like her character) and the black man in the group, too, and also there’s a younger man who doesn’t say anything in the group (I think) who looks good on the outside ;)
Usually actors are so much more beautiful on the outside than people in real life would be, so I take this as one of the positive aspects of that film, being closer to reality, just showing “normal” people.
As for being creeps, well, that’s something different, even good-looking people can be creeps ;)
Fascinating. I’m not going to lie. Before this film, I had no idea that this was an actual…disorder. I had not a single clue that there were people who were dealing with these kinds of feelings. I just saw the film, and I found a link on its wikipedia article to this page. I liked the film. I felt that it falls off a bit in the second half- telegraphic its payoff a bit too obviously and a bit too early. However, I can’t lie that it was well-acted and involving. I thought that the character of Fiona wasn’t mean to portray the way that these people ALL are. I think that maybe its because her own problems seemed rooted in a personal trauma and in guilt than in anything else.
Then again, you could tell me that there are plenty of people in your community who have similar reasons for feeling how they feel. I’m utterly fascinated, and you can feel free to email me. I’m horribly curious, but aware of your need for privacy as well.
4 On 10 September, 2008, Claire said:
Hey “Your Name”. :o) I’m actually fascinated that you were so interested in the film’s subject matter that you’d seek out this place and post here. Welcome! I’d email you, but you didn’t leave your email address. Feel free to contact me via this site’s “contact” form.
5 On 9 November, 2008, Roger said:
The movie was not perfect but it did at least try to address BIID in a (semi) mainstream film for the first time.
I am still waiting for a Region 2 (Europe/UK) DVD version to buy, although I did see an on-line copy of the film some months ago.
6 On 26 December, 2009, Forbidden Light said:
I actually liked the fact that he didn’t attempt to make a diagnosis. He left it very open ended which creates space for discussion.
In a sensationalist society; you have to applaud the director for not making it about fetish and sex. He did his best to expose the humanity in the transabled without summing them up.
I would like to see documentaries about this subject.
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1 On 16 July, 2008, Rorschach said:
I realize that the meeting place felt run down and musty but I think that this was done more for cinematic effect than anything else. The writer, in my interpretation, was trying to convey where these kind of discussions happen which typically has been the Yahoo! groups often in poorly maintained groups (TA.org being an exception) with very little web traffic which in some sense is the internet equivalent to what was shown there.
I felt that the members of the group looked rather plain, average, and quite accurate to life. Of course a bit more on the destitute end which I think was again a judgment call made for enhancing the cinematic effect previously mentioned. Having everyone look like they were of middle or lower class helps to create an emotional impression implying that this is secretive, hidden, out of the way and anything but mainstream (which I would say is fairly accurate).
I would have personally preferred that “we” look better (though the guy in the black hat looked like a hotter version of Stumpy {Don’t worry Stumpy, I don’t have a thing for you.]) and all be meeting at someone’s house for a meeting sort of like the shown in Transamerica.
Quid Pro Quo, while being a good movie is not a good introduction to BIID or the TA community, though it is rather silly to expect it to be. However it is an introduction and in that it gains importance. For a first try I must say it wasn’t bad though there is always room for improvement.