Entertainment

CRIPPLING JEALOUSY OF HIS LEGS

TO say “Quid Pro Quo” – a pitch-black comedy set in a subculture of New Yorkers who yearn to lose the use of their limbs – is not for all tastes is perhaps the understatement of the year.

But if you can get past the intentionally disturbing fetish theme, this Sundance veteran is a showcase for a promising new filmmaker named Carlos Brooks, as well as for Vera Farmiga, one of the best film actresses working today of whom you’ve probably never heard.

Farmiga, whose talents were largely squandered as the shrink-girlfriend in “The Departed,” is scarily good as the glamorous Fiona, an art restorer who secretly straps herself into leg braces whenever she’s alone.

Alternately charming and frightening, Fiona aims to get what she wants by seducing Isaac (a low-key Nick Stahl), a public-radio reporter who is interviewing “wannabes” after receiving a tip about a man who tried to bribe a doctor with $250,000 to amputate a perfectly healthy limb.

The unattached Isaac, who has been unable to walk since an auto accident that killed his parents when he was a child, clearly has a hard time understanding why someone would want to cripple himself.

This is especially true after a “magic” pair of vintage shoes seemingly restores Isaac’s ability to walk – at the same time Fiona decides to “come out of the closet” and start living in a wheelchair 24/7.

“Quid Pro Quo” becomes more conventional at this point, as Fiona uses Isaac’s discovery as leverage to achieve her not-so-secret agenda, which is hinted at a bit too heavily.

Still, this warped masochistic cousin to David Cronenberg’s “Crash” – not to be confused with the Oscar winner of the same name – is well worth seeing for Farmiga’s stunning performance.

loulumenick@nypost.com

QUID PRO QUO

Viva Vera!Running time: 82 minutes. Rated R (sexuality, language). At Sunshine, Houston Street and Second Avenue.