FINDERS KEEPERS (R)
Released by The Orchard
Reviewed by Adam Mast
The quirky documentary FINDERS KEEPERS weaves its tale around Shannon Whisnant, a colorful southerner who gets the surprise of his life after purchasing a barbecue smoker at a storage unit auction. While cleaning the smoker out, Shannon is shocked to discover an amputated leg inside. Unaware of how the leg got there, the entrepreneur in Shannon quickly realizes there is money to be made from this disturbing discovery.
Trouble arises however, when a man named John Wood comes forward claiming the mysterious body part is his and that he lost it in a plane crash. Weird, I know, but don’t worry. All your questions will be answered by the end of this gloriously strange true story.
It is downright impossible to watch FINDERS KEEPERS and not laugh at the sheer absurdity of what’s going on, but by about 20 minutes in, something strange happens. Layers are peeled away, and we begin to see these men for who they really are. And the impact that these colorful, real-life characters inadvertently have on each other is really what drives this fantastic documentary from Bryan Carberry and J. Clay Tweel.
For a documentary about a legal battle involving a severed leg, it doesn’t get any more poignant than FINDERS KEEPERS. As this bizarre story continues to unfold, it becomes perfectly clear that this leg represents a great deal to both men for wildly different reasons.
In short, FINDERS KEEPERS is immensely entertaining. It’s fascinating, funny, sweet, sad, heartwarming, and endlessly weird in all the right ways. Whatever you do, don’t let the odd subject matter detour you from seeing it.
FINDERS KEEPERS is currently in limited release and makes its bow on iTunes and On Demand on Oct. 2.
