Picking Up the Pieces (2000)

A small New Mexican village discovers a severed hand that is considered a miracle of God, when it actually belongs to a murdered spouse with a husband in search of it.

Director:

Alfonso Arau

Writer:

Bill Wilson

Stars:

Woody Allen, David Schwimmer, Angélica Aragón

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Woody Allen	...	Tex Cowley
Sharon Stone	...	Candy Cowley
Maria Grazia Cucinotta	...	Desi
Cheech Marin	...	Mayor Machado
David Schwimmer	...	Father Leo Jerome
Kiefer Sutherland	...	Officer Bobo
Alfonso Arau	...	Dr. Amado
Danny De La Paz	...	Lalo Taxi Driver
Andy Dick	...	Father Buñuel
Fran Drescher	...	Sister Frida
Joseph Gordon-Levitt	...	Flaco
Elliott Gould	...	Father LaCage
Eddie Griffin	...	Sediento
Mía Maestro	...	Carla
Lupe Ontiveros	...	Constancia

Storyline

Woody Allen plays Tex, a kosher butcher. Sharon Stone plays his unfaithful wife Candy. Tex catches Candy in the act and in a fit of rage he kills her. To conceal his crime he cuts up her body and buries it in the desert in New Mexico. However, when her hand surfaces, a blind woman trips over it and it restores her sight. The hand is then considered to be the "hand of the Virgin." Despite the church's fallen priest objecting, the ambitious mayor of the town creates an international three-ring circus of miracle-seekers, TV crews, and born-again local prostitutes all interested in the hand. All of this goes on while Tex is desperately trying to recover the hand before the sheriff finds it and uses it as evidence against him.

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Plot Keywords:

man wearing glasses | uxoricide | mistaken for miracle | breasts growing | miracle | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexuality and language

Details

Official Sites:

Kushner-Locke Company [United States] Metropolitan Filmexport (French)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 August 2000 (France)

Also Known As:

First on Max

Filming Locations:

Santa Clarita, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Comala Films Productions, Ostensible Productions, The Kushner-Locke Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The only movie written by Bill Wilson.

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Quotes

Father Leo: Senora, please, please. This is the house of God, there is no screaming or jumping for joy here.

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Connections

Referenced in Adjust Your Tracking (2013)

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Soundtracks

Bad Corazon En Pedazos
Performed by Flaco Jiménez and his Band
Written by Ron Morales, M. Spindola

User Reviews

For a comedy, it's pretty serious!

Maybe it's just the mood I'm in but after a failed first attempt at viewing this film (lasted about 10 minutes) I just finished seeing the "hole" thing and thought "what a great WA film ala the pre-serious Woody phase that he didn't write! This film was obviously not done with the BIG audience in mind, but out of love for the absurd to a sublime degree. Over the top puns abound in a truly profound way. Like for instance, "You can save your ass, or you can save your soul. But you can't save both. You choose, ass....soul...etc.,etc. I can't believe the many stars in this cast (albeit off-ctr types) did this for the money, so they must have had a blast making it. And c'mon folks, tell me you didn't love to see Kieffer hung up and beaten like a pinata with fireworks going off on his body. I hven't seen cast interviews, so I'm not as informed as some of the commenteers here are, but the overall message (last words of Woody)of this movie is not to be ignored: "f__k em if they can't take a joke". Yeah, the production was cheezy, but it fit so well. The patchwork editing just may have been intentional.... I can easily see how people panned this film. But, no offense intended, maybe you take yourself a bit too seriously.

PS: the quip about Jesus' party getting out of hand _was_ Lenny Bruce's comment as stated by Woody in the film.

Ahhhhhh