Meet the man who lost the same leg twice — and the other guy who wanted to make money out of the unusual situation. In Finders Keepers, the pair sit on opposing sides of a shared story that spans a plane crash, a storage locker find, a drawn-out dispute and international media attention. In one corner, on a prosthetic limb, stands John Wood. In the other lurks bargain hunter Shannon Whisnant. Their story is real, though that it demonstrates that truth is stranger than fiction is never in question.
Arguing over a body part amputated, embalmed, placed in a smoker grill and stowed away genuinely provides the basis for their ongoing feud as well as the documentary that chronicles the disagreement. When Wood lost his lower leg in an accident that also claimed his father, he wanted to keep it as a reminder; however instead of receiving skeletal remains from a hospital technician, he was given his limb in all its severed and bloody glory. Whisnant found it in the barbecue he bought at an auction of stored goods forfeited due to lack of payment. Where others might have seen something gruesome, he spied a tourist attraction charging $3 for a glimpse of someone’s detached appendage, as well as potential fame and fortune.
Directors Bryan Carberry and J. Clay Tweel, the former also acting as editor on his first effort as a filmmaker and the latter a veteran of 2014’s Print the Legend, turn their custody battle into an emotionally heightened, aesthetically low-key affair. In the retelling, the tale doesn’t require embellishment, an attitude that carries over to the film’s visuals. Interlaced with archival news footage, plainly shot talking head interviews provide much of the content, essaying not only the central duo, but their friends and loved ones. Favouring naturalism proves fitting in not only emphasising the outlandish narrative, but in normalising a portrait of real-life characters that could have easily turned into caricatures.
Both Wood and Whisnant make engaging on-screen figures in simply recounting their plights, as well as the paths that brought them to their highly publicised stoush. The film’s loyalties don’t overtly reside with either man, though many a viewer might not be able to comprehend Whisnant’s insistence to keep Wood’s mummified flesh and bone. Here, Finders Keepers‘ examination of class divides and the lure of celebrity — with Wood springing from a more prosperous upbringing before dallying with drugs, and Whisnant outspoken about his dreams of reality television stardom — come into focus. The co-directors don’t delve into either as deeply as they might have, but they do ensure the various motivations behind the scenario are topics of conversation.
Of course, simplicity in style and thoughtfulness in approach doesn’t equate to a sombre tone, nor could it given the subject. Such a colourful case — as even gracing the televised courtroom of Judge Mathis — can only be relayed with ample lashings of humour; crucially, though, the film jests with those within its frames, and refrains from laughing at them. Letting Wood and Whisnant largely proffer their own opinions and experiences in their own words assists in this regard. What at first seems comically offbeat is eventually rendered empathetic and insightful, an outcome as perhaps as unlikely as the underlying circumstances.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Finders Keepers
Director: Bryan Carberry and J. Clay Tweel
USA, 2015, 82 mins
Antenna Documentary Film Festival
antennafestival.org
13–18 October
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