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Picking Up the Pieces

2000 · 95 min

A wildly uneven black comedy that mixes gruesome murder with small-town miracle satire, aiming for laughs but often landing in the absurd.

Directed by
Alfonso Arau
Genres
Comedy, Thriller, Mystery
Tagline
A comedy that is not afraid to point the finger.
Overview
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.

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Directed by
Alfonso Arau
Genres
Comedy, Thriller, Mystery
In your watch list

How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • absurdstrength 3 of 3
  • satiricalstrength 2 of 3
  • darkstrength 2 of 3
  • campystrength 1 of 3
Pacing
measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • faith
  • deception
  • crime
  • guilt
  • redemption
Places
  • small town
  • countryside
Era
contemporary
Audience
adult
Form
  • twist ending
Content intensity
  • Gore strong
  • Language mild
  • Violence strong
  • Sex mild
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action3
Horror4
Humour7
Realism3
Romance3
Tension4
Darkness7
Complexity5
Emotional weight4

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Cast

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Details

Genres
comedy, thriller, mystery, romance
Directed by
Alfonso Arau
Written by
Bill Wilson
Starring
Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Alfonso Arau, Brian Brophy, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Cheech Marin, David Schwimmer, Kiefer Sutherland
Cinematography
Vittorio Storaro
Runtime
95 min
Country
United States of America
Languages
Spanish, English

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