A wacky viral story — the kind that gets played for laughs at the end of news broadcasts — gets uncommonly deep consideration in this documentary gem. That’s not to say that Finders Keepers ignores the surreal comedy of the situation that John Wood and Shannon Whisnant, two star-crossed North Carolina men, found themselves in in 2007: battling over the custody rights of John’s mummified amputated leg. The humor in this bizarre tale and all the myriad eccentricities of its real-life characters is never left untapped, but to simply focus on that would add nothing new to the way the story had been told thus far.
Unlike the many clips from news segments and reality TV that we see in the film, Finders Keepers instead looks beyond the low-hanging fruit and finds deep pathos simmering under the surface of this wacky tale. What emerges is a complex, often tragic, and very American picture of the way traumas shape our lives, the addictive pull of drugs and attention, and fate’s habit of twisting nightmares into blessings and vice versa. It’s the kind of film that makes you wonder how many other unexpectedly poignant stories have been short-changed by our impulse to be flippant.
"In 82 svelte minutes, Finders Keepers encapsulates something ineffable about the modern American experience."
— Bilge Ebiri
"A fantastic story that touches upon all-American notions of celebrity, redemption, family, justice, class, meme culture-all which came together with a kooky news segment."
— Nick Allen
In this documentary, recovering addict and amputee John Wood finds himself in a stranger-than-fiction battle to reclaim his mummified leg from Southern entrepreneur Shannon Whisnant, who found it in a grill he bought at an auction and believes it therefore to be his rightful property.
In 2004, John Wood lost his leg in a plane accident; three years later, wheeler-dealer Shannon Whisnant found its mummified remains hidden in a grill he bought at an auction, turned it into a spectacle, and sued John for its custody.
Finders Keepers pulls off a very tricky tonal balancing act, toggling between humor, empathy, and sharp social insight — sometimes even in the space of a minute. It’s a huge spectrum to traverse, but the curiosity of the directors (plus the editing’s light touch) makes every transition feel smooth, in keeping with the doc’s very human approach.
A man picks up his frozen mummified leg from a Hardee’s drive-thru in this documentary — "stranger than fiction" doesn’t cover it.
