Quid Pro Quo

USA

2008

***

Quid Pro Quo tells the story of a paraplegic radio reporter Isaac Knot (Nick Stahl) who receives a tip about a local group of wannabes and pretenders.  He discovers that the tipster is a woman named Fiona (Vera Farmiga), who, with Isaac’s accompaniment, finally realizes her dream of being a wheelchair pretender. 

Isaac is a sexy wheeler and you likely won’t be disappointed by the sight of him wheeling around the city, and the character earns our sympathy when he gets stood up on a blind date by a woman who didn’t realize she was being set up with a disabled man.  Unfortunately, Fiona’s portrayal of a pretender didn’t seem entirely realistic to me, but at least the movie didn’t make pretenders seem evil… just hopelessly kooky. 

The movie could have been a solid dev film, but a ridiculous ending involving “magic shoes” ruined it.  But it still deserves three stars for the very appealing image of Isaac in a wheelchair.

Whose Life Is It Anyway?

Whose Life Is It Anyway?
USA
1981
**

Originally a play by Brian Clark, Whose Life is it Anyway? tells the story of Ken Harrison, a sculptor played by Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws, Mr. Holland's Opus), who is paralyzed from the neck down as a result of a car accident. Ken is terribly depressed as a result of his accident and wants to end his life. Since Ken is unable to kill himself, he hires a lawyer to help him win the battle to have himself taken off life support. This part is a little different from Dreyfuss's other films, but he grows into the role and handles it very well. Unfortunately, the plot of the movie is extremely depressing. Ken doesn't learn to adjust to being a quadriplegic, but instead only thinks about dying. He never even gives it a try. If only Ken could have met someone like Devo Girl, his life may have turned out differently.

Saved!

Saved!
USA
2004
****

Aside from being a funny and creative satire about Catholic school, centering on a high school senior (Jena Malone) who becomes pregnant, this is a great devo movie. Macaulay Culkin, all grown up but still cute at age 23, plays a paraplegic student named Roland who shuns his overprotective sister and finds love (or at least lust) with the school "bad girl" Cassandra (Eva Amurri). In one scene, Roland wheels closer to Cassandra so that his foot brushes against hers, his own creative attempt at "footsie"; in another scene, he sports Cassandra's hickies on his neck. Paradevo applauds this movie for recognizing paraplegics as being sexy.

The People VS. Larry Flint

The People VS. Larry Flint
USA
1996
**

This movie tells the true story of Larry Flint (played by Woody Harrelson), the founder of the sleazy pornographic magazine Hustler. The movie includes incredible performances by Harrelson and Courtney Love (lead singer of the band Hole), who plays Flint's wife Althea. However, as a devo movie it falls flat. Flint builds an empire around his magazine Hustler as he fights for the rights given to him by the First Amendment, but his struggle is cut short when a sniper shoots him in the spine, paralyzing him from the waist down. But don't expect any scenes involving Flint dragging his paralyzed legs. Throughout most of the movie, Flint is fairly oblivious to his injury-he may as well be an AB sitting in a chair. If you want to see a great movie, The People vs. Larry Flint won't disappoint you. If you want to see a great devo movie, look elsewhere.

The Men

The Men
USA
1950
****

In Marlon Brando's first major film, he plays Bud, a paraplegic WWII veteran adjusting to his new disability in a hospital for veterans with spinal cord injuries. Bud initially feels that his life is over until his fiance Ellie (Teresa Wright) convinces him that he can still lead a full and happy life with her. Life is blissful until Ellie begins to have doubts of her own. This movie has got it all for the discerning devo. It's got the very handsome young Brando rolling around in a wheelchair, determined to stand up on his own for his wedding ceremony, even getting himself into a barroom brawl. And Jack Webb, in a supporting role, is surprisingly sexy as a sarcastic paraplegic ex-Sargeant who is taken advantage of by a pretty face.

Bone Collector

Bone Collector
USA
1999

In this gruesome film based on a book, Denzel Washington plays quadriplegic detective Lincoln Rhyme, who is drawn into solving one last crime from his bed. Lincoln enlists the help of a young female detective named Amelia, played by the sexy Angelina Jolie, and sparks fly. This movie pushes the brink of everything disturbing and disgusting, then it goes too far. If you want to see a good movie about a psycho killer, see Seven or Silence of the Lambs. If you want to see a good devo movie, this isn't worthwhile either. Denzel Washington is very sexy as always, but there's more to playing an interesting quadriplegic than lying in bed all day and not moving. For all practical purposes, Lincoln might as well have just been sick in bed. This movie just didn't give Paradevo that special devo thrill.

Born on the Fourth of July

Born on the Fourth of July
USA
1989

Tom Cruise plays Ron Kovic, a young man who goes off to fight in the Vietnam War and returns home as a paraplegic. Ron is initially devastated by his injury, but comes to see his purpose as a protestor against the evils of the Vietnam War. There are some great scenes and Cruise plays the part brilliantly, but Paradevo has two major complaints with the movie. First, it's primarily a movie about the evils of war and Ron's injury is secondary. Second, Cruise is usually one of the most attractive men in Hollywood, but he badly needs a shave and a haircut in this movie. Tom Cruise at his best as a paraplegic is orgasmic, but as is he gets only three stars.

A Man Like Mac

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Molly Meets Her Match

Molly Meets Her Match by Val Whisenand
***

In this short novel, the eponymous Molly meets wheelchair-bound Brian Forrester, who is apparently her match. Molly helps provide Brian with a "helper dog" to increase his independence. Brian immediately falls for Molly, who rebuffs him repeatedly because she doesn't want to get married. Brian and his brother agree that there is no point in trying to go out with Molly if she doesn't want to get married, so I guess the author of this novel has never actually met a man before. Then for some reason that's not entirely clear to me, Molly moves in to Brian's living room. Even more baffling is her fear of being rejected by Brian, who has hit on her non-stop throughout the entire book, when she sneaks into his bedroom in a satin teddy (that he bought her). Despite my dislike of these cheesy romance novels, this was actually sort of a sweet story. It deals with most of the important disability issues and doesn't follow the cookie-cutter plot of the above two novels, although all three have in common women in their late 20's who are virgins (who are we kidding now?). It starts out kind of slow, but I liked the message in general. Brian never walks again, but he learns that he is still capable of working as a mechanic and that he can still please Molly in bed. That's worth three stars to me. Although if they mentioned "Brian's rippling muscles" one more time, I probably would have hurled the book across the room.

Come Lie With Me

Come Lie With Me by Linda Howard
*

The fabulously rich and handsome Blake Remington is paralyzed while mountain-climbing and only the fabulously beautiful and determined physical therapist Dione Kelly can help him to walk again. Although Blake is a difficult patient who challenges her methods and authority at every turn, Dione is a physical therapist with an unsinkable spirit and unwavering compassion and will not give up on Blake, despite his refusal to engage in physical therapy. Adam, I mean, Blake won't engage in PT unless he's absolutely guaranteed he'll walk again. Does this sound a little familiar? Does this sound like the exact same book I just reviewed above? Well, there's a twist in this one. In this book, the physical therapist Dione has a dark past. In fact, the back cover proclaims that her "soul was as paralyzed as [Blake's] body." Wow. Sounds intriguing. By page 96, Blake was already practically walking again and I stopped reading at that point. I guess I'll never know if Blake and Dione live happily ever after. I'll assume not.

Adam's Fall

Adam's Fall by Sandra Brown
**

I read this book a number of years ago, but I remember it well enough to say it wasn't all that great. I'll use amazon's description to help me in my review. The premise is somewhat ridiculous: the fabulously rich and handsome Adam Cavanaugh is paralyzed while mountain-climbing (thus the clever title "Adam's Fall") and only the fabulously "beautiful and determined" physical therapist Lilah Mason can help him to walk again. Why are the beautiful ones always so determined? Although Adam is a difficult patient who "challenges her methods and authority at every turn", Lilah is a "physical therapist with an unsinkable spirit and unwavering compassion" and will not give up on Adam, despite his somewhat baffling refusal to engage in physical therapy. For some reason, Adam won't do PT unless he's absolutely guaranteed he'll walk again. Why? I don't get it. It seems almost as if this is just a really contrived plot device. I don't want to give away whether Adam and Lilah eventually get it on, but according to the amazon summary, "Lilah's professional duty and her passionate yearnings clash." I hate it when my professional duties and passionate yearnings clash... that's the worst. From page one you know Adam's going to walk again, and the worst thing about this book is that this is the only way there can be a happy ending. Kind of a shitty message.

Rory O'Shea Was Here

Rory O'Shea Was Here
UK
2004
***

Rory O'Shea (James McAvoy) is a young man with muscular dystrophy who enters a home for the disabled and changes the life of a resident named Michael (Steven Robertson), who has cerebral palsy. Rory is the only person who can understand Michael's speaking voice and talks him into entering a project for independent living. All goes according to plan until they hire an attractive young woman named Siobhan (Romola Garai) to care for their needs--and Michael falls in love with her. Rory does a fine job playing the part of an attractive young quad and his performance never disappoints. There's tremendous chemistry between Rory and Siobhan as she simultaneously spars with him, undresses him, and helps him with his transfers, yet it's all a tease--nothing ever comes of it, which is why the movie falls short of a four star rating.

Kingpin

Kingpin
USA
1996
**

In this comedy by the infamous Farrelly brothers, Woody Harrelson plays an ex-bowler named Roy Munson whose bowling hand has to be amputated after a hustle goes wrong. Depressed by his own lot in life, Roy searches for a bowling prodigy to restore his lost glory. He finds this prodigy in a young Amish man named Ishmael (Randy Quaid). True to the Farrelly brothers' style, there are plenty of tasteless jokes involving Roy's rubber hand being popped off and Roy accidentally destroying things with his hook. Other than that, Roy seems completely oblivious to his missing hand and we never even get a glimpse at the stump. One redeeming devotee feature of this movie is that Roy gets the beautiful girl (Vanessa Angel) at the end, but she doesn't seem like much of a devotee at all. She can't appreciate him like we would.

Idle Hands

Idle Hands
USA
1999
***

In the spirit of Evil Dead 2, this movie involves a teenager named Anton (Devon Sawa) whose hand becomes possessed. After Anton's hand kills his two best friends, he becomes fed up and slices it off with a butcher knife so that he walks around through half the movie with an impressive stump. Anton is very sexy to begin with and even more so with only one hand. His love interest is played by Jessica Alba, the star of Dark Angel, a favorite TV show of devos everywhere. In Paradevo's opinion, this movie is a hilarious portrayal of laziness and mild drug use, but it's the amputated hand that makes it great.

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump
USA
1994
***

The Academy Award winning film about the unusual life of an idiot savant named Forrest Gump, played by Tom Hanks (Philadelphia, Big). During Forrest's stint in Vietnam, he saves the life of his Lieutenant, a fellow named Dan (Gary Sinise). Although Dan survives the war, both his legs are amputated and his wishes that Forrest had let him die. Sinise plays the role brilliantly, and arguably the most memorable scene in the movie is when his stumps are revealed before the camera. Unfortunately, true to some sort of Hollywood rule, Dan's appearance becomes increasingly unkempt while he is confined to the wheelchair, spoiling his good looks. Only when he is fitted for prosthetics at the end does he bother to clean himself up, but by then it's too late. Still, it's a great movie for devos, especially those who don't mind the hippie look.