The Orchard has released the first official trailer for the stranger-than-fiction documentary Finders Keepers, centering on two oddball characters whose lives intersect in the most peculiar way. Shannon Whisnant buys an used grill at an auction, takes it home, opens it up, and finds a human leg. That leg, he soon learns belongs to John Wood, a wayward man struggling with his personal demons and a tragic past. When Wistnant sues to reclaim the leg as the rightful owner, the two men get swept up in the media frenzy surrounding the outlandish scenario, revealing their true characters when they're thrust in the sudden spotlight.
It's the kind of tale that stokes morbid curiosity, sounding like the film equivalent of a "you won't believe what happens next" headline, but the trailer is fantastic and Finders Keepers has been a big hit with critics (you can read Matt's Sundance review here) because it delves deeper than a cheap exploitation of bizarre circumstance. Check it out for yourself below.
Here's the full Finders Keepers synopsis:
When his amputated leg is discovered in a grill sold at a North Carolina auction, John Wood finds himself at the center of a worldwide media frenzy. Believing the new-found attention to be his chance at doing some great things in an otherwise disappointing, wayward life, he's quickly swept up in the hysteria as the leg's enterprising buyer, Shannon Whisnant, then sues to regain its custody. But the stranger-than-fiction chain of events, fueling John’s drug addiction and compounded by generations of his familial dysfunction, soon sets John on the streets and heading to his certain demise. Just in time, however, another twist in these fantastical occurrences gives John a final shot at becoming whole for the first time in his life.
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