Finders Keepers

Finders Keepers was warmly received at the SXSW Film Festival. It is one of those stories which prove that truth is almost always much stranger than fiction. There are many true stories – like this one – which no one would believe if you wrote them as fiction.

In this bizarre tale of how John Wood's amputated leg is accidentally sold at auction to Shannon Whisnant who has the screwball idea of making money by displaying it as some sort of macabre tourist attraction. The film actually uses this strange incident as an opportunity to explore the severely dysfunctional lives of both men and their families. Wood is a drug addict still dealing with the grief of losing his father in the same plane crash that cost him his leg. Whisnant appears to be some sort of unhappy narcissist who sees the purchase of an amputated leg as his ticket to the fame and fortune that has long eluded him thus far in his rather mundane life

The film makers take this material and while gently mocking the men's eccentricities also allows them to share their complicated stories. The film may even serve as a partial catharsis for them. Finders Keepers is hilarious. The filmmakers keep the story moving in a highly entertaining manner. Despite the entertainment component the emotions of the protagonists and their families are very real and their pain about the problems in their lives is also very real. Really the leg they are battling for becomes a strange metaphor for the aspects of themselves that are missing in both their lives. Finders Keepers walks the line between comedy and tragedy and does so delightfully. I had no idea what to expect when I walked into this film and I think I got a lot more than I expected.

Finders Keepers is the best comedy of tragic idiots that the Coen brothers never had the chance to make. It's certainly not the most important documentary of the year, and it might not end up being the best, but it'll most likely be the most entertaining. Though even while it makes you laugh from the farcical nature of the situation, there's a thoughtful social commentary that studies many harsh aspects of the human condition.

In a horrific plane crash that took his father's life, John Wood's leg was amputated, and in a very unorthodox request John asked to keep his limb to shred it to the bone and use it for a memorial for his father. John went through the long process of preserving it and keeping it safe in a grill only to lose that grill with the leg inside as he got behind storage locker payments where he kept both.

Amateur entrepreneur and all-round hustler Shannon Whisnant happened to purchase that storage locker and refused to give the leg back to John despite polite and reasonable requests. With all the attention, he sees it as an opportunity to make his millions using it as a tourist attraction and even invites John on the deal. When an agreement is not settled, it's taken to be one of the most unique legal battles the courts have ever seen. Can one really buy someone else's body parts?

Most everyone else in the documentary finds the situation bafflingly bizarre including John, and it's hilarious, though interesting to see what the foot means to these various people. Any reaction you have is reflected in a ideally sourced clip from the media. If it weren't for solid proof it happened, you'd think it was a perfectly scripted mockumentary. Much of the men's conflict is shown on television, both in candid media appearances and on televised courtrooms. In the world of Finders Keepers – television caused, provoked and then solves their problems.

While John has his own human interest story, the source of the bizarre conflict is from Shannon's lifetime ambition to be an everyday television personality, despite how absolutely unlikely it is. There's a deep undercurrent of bittersweetness in how the dreams of fame and fortune can cloud someone and drive them to such madness, even though it's so utterly far from their grasp. The genius of the film is that it studies Shannon eventually tasting it, and ironically through the film itself, and it rings painfully true in the absurdity of those ambitions that we can all admit to at some times.

The film certainly does paint Shannon as the bad guy but John is no saint. He's a drug addict and throughout most of the film's chronology of events, it's pointed out that he's high, something that tears his family apart. They're both such efficiently funny characters in their outlandish statements that they don't have to try, but they're also deeply poignant in their human flaws. The direction from J. Clay Tweel and Bryan Carberry compliments both sides, balancing our sympathies.

However, the filmmakers don't catch up to date with our subjects until about an hour into the film when the drama is seemingly resolved. Fortunately, it has more personal reconciliation to explore and that's where the film finds its most compelling moments as the people we've been following find some hope beyond the foot. The Coens would not have offered such satisfying resolutions so it's a treat to have this stranger than fiction story in this tightly constructed documentary form that breezes by with equal substance.

8/10

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It's not the idea, but the execution. While the subject matter is silly and ridiculous, Carberry and Tweel are able to extract and distill such a human story. The dichotomy makes it that much more enjoyable.

Shannon Whisnant purchased a grill at an auction. Inside the grill was an amputated leg. What follows is a story centered on the enterprising Whisnant and John Wood, the man whose leg wound up in the grill due to an odd chain of events.

This story, by itself, is quite interesting because of the events and people involved. Shannon Whisnant is clearly crazy, with delusions of grandeur. He does not seem stupid, but clearly feels he has been slighted by the world and should be someone important. John Wood, on the other hand, is generally portrayed as the victim, but he has his own problems and from what we see in the film, he seems to have more or less thrown away a golden ticket.

A little bit deeper, there are two issues I would love to have seen more of: one, why did the doctors let Wood keep his leg? I feel like there are some biohazard issues with letting people keep rotting flesh, and the film never really got into that.

And two, I wish the issue would have gone through actual legal channels. There are some excellent legal questions involved: does the leg belong to the person who found it, just as money in a mattress would? Or is it clearly something different because it is human remains -- can you actually own part of another man? This could have been fascinating to see argued in court, but that never happens.

There seems to be a lot of documentaries made these days, and even some movies look like doccos. The premise of Finders Keepers is odd, but the tagline/blurb of this film tells little about what it is: a weird human interest/recovery story from NC/SC. Unlike a lot of documentaries based around simple folk, the makers really draw you into responding emotionally to the characters in this one, whether it be annoyance, revulsion or admiration.

Finders Keepers has the right mix of humour, TV/news footage and one on one face camera/narrative dialogue to tell an engaging story of the media, greed, missed opportunities and redemption. The documentary makers keep the necessary distance from the subjects to allow the story to unfold naturally.

It is worth watching and talking about afterwards, especially if you are interested in embalmed feet.