Picking Up the Pieces (film)

Last updated

Picking Up the Pieces
Picking up the pieces.jpg
Promotional poster
Directed by Alfonso Arau
Written byBill Wilson
Produced byPaul Sandberg
Starring Woody Allen
David Schwimmer
Kiefer Sutherland
Maria Grazia Cucinotta
Cheech Marin
Cinematography Vittorio Storaro
Edited byMichael R. Miller
Music byRuy Folguera
Production
companies
Comala Films Productions
Ostensible Productions
The Kushner-Locke Company
Distributed by Artisan Entertainment
Release date
  • May 26, 2000 (2000-05-26)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Picking Up the Pieces is a 2000 black comedy film directed by Alfonso Arau and starring Woody Allen, David Schwimmer, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Kiefer Sutherland, Cheech Marin, and Sharon Stone.

Contents

Plot

Tex is a butcher who kills his unfaithful wife Candy. After cutting up the body, Tex buries most of her body parts in the desert in New Mexico. A blind woman accidentally trips over Candy's hand, which has not been buried. Picking it up, her sight is restored, and she proclaims the hand to be the "Hand of the Virgin Mary."

The hand then becomes the talk of the village and people flock there to heal themselves. This ranges from a crippled man growing new legs, a teenager being relieved of his acne and a little person having his manhood enlarged. Tex hears of these miracles, and attempts to retrieve the hand while being pursued by patrol officer Bobo who was one of his wife's lovers.

Eventually, Tex and the officer track down the hand, with Tex's theft of the hand undoing all the miracles that it has performed. While Tex is in prison, he is visited by his wife's spirit, who reveals that, despite her life of whoring and adultery, the suffering she endured with Tex allowed her to get into Heaven, and she arranges for him to get out of his cell so that he can return the hand to the church.

Cast

Production

In an interview, Cheech Marin said that he agreed to make the film because Woody Allen was part of the cast. [1]

When asked by Stig Björkman for the book Woody Allen on Woody Allen why he chose to be in the film, Allen responded that the film "was a lucrative offer." On the production of the film, Allen commented, "I believe if the movie had been made in Spanish or Italian, it might have had a prayer. In English it was an uphill battle for some very nice and talented people." [2]

Reception

Although the film has many movie stars, including Allen's close friend, Elliott Gould, Cheech Marin still called Picking Up the Pieces the worst film he had ever starred in. [1]

References

  1. 1 2 Rabin, Nathan (December 22, 2008). "Cheech Marin". AV Club.
  2. ↑ Allen, Woody; Björkman, Stig (2005). Woody Allen on Woody Allen: In Conversation with Stig Björkman (Revised ed.). Grove Press. p. 305. ISBN   978-0-8021-4203-0.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.