The Parts You Lose

The Parts You Lose is a 2019 American thriller film starring Aaron Paul and Danny Murphy as a fugitive criminal and a deaf boy who befriend one another. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Scoot McNairy also star as the boy's parents. The film is directed by Christopher Cantwell based on a screenplay by Darren Lemke. The H Collective financed and produced the film. Filming took place in Winnipeg, Canada. The Parts You Lose had its world premiere on March 14, 2019 at the 2019 Sun Valley Film Festival in Sun Valley, Idaho. Samuel Goldwyn Films will release the film commercially in the United States in the third quarter of 2019.

Synopsis
A deaf 10-year-old boy, Wesley, lives on a small farm in North Dakota and commutes to a school for the deaf. He is bullied at the school, and at home, he has a good relationship with his mother, though not his father. One day he comes across an injured man who he helps recover, and they become friends. The man teaches the boy how to stand up to the school bully and his father. A United States Marshal comes looking for the man, and Wesley struggles with being loyal to his new friend.

Cast

 * Aaron Paul as a fugitive criminal
 * Danny Murphy as Wesley, a deaf boy who befriends the criminal
 * Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the deaf boy's mother
 * Scoot McNairy as the deaf boy's father

Production
The Parts You Lose is directed by Christopher Cantwell based on a screenplay by Darren Lemke. The film's production is financed and overseen by The H Collective. The film originated in 2015 as a German-Canadian co-production based on a screenplay by Lemke and with Dutch director Paula van der Oest attached. Actor Aaron Paul was cast in May of that year, with filming scheduled to begin in the Manitoba province of Canada in the last few months of 2015. By November, Carice van Houten was also cast, with filming having been pushed back to the second quarter of 2016. Van der Oest and Van Houten eventually left the project; these changes and production delays postponed filming.

By June 2017, the production-financing entity The H Collective was launched with The Parts You Lose among a dozen films it began financing. By the following November, Christopher Cantwell was hired as the new director to film Lemke's script. British deaf actor Danny Murphy, who is fluent in British Sign Language, was cast as the deaf boy who befriends Paul's character. Murphy was cast after an international casting search, supported by Deaf West Theatre, for a hard of hearing actor. In the following December, actors Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Scoot McNairy were cast as the deaf boy's parents. McNairy had previously starred in the TV series Halt and Catch Fire (2014–2017), of which Cantwell was one of the creators and showrunners.

Principal photography started in Winnipeg in the Manitoba province of Canada on December 5, 2017. Since Murphy and his character use sign language, producers involved students and staff from Winnipeg's Manitoba School for the Deaf. Joanna Hawkins was hired as an American Sign Language consultant. Students and teachers were also filmed in scenes using sign language.

By March 2018, The Parts You Lose was in post-production. By the following October, the film was officially finished.

Release
The Parts You Lose had its world premiere on March 14, 2019 at the 2019 Sun Valley Film Festival in Sun Valley, Idaho. Samuel Goldwyn Films acquired United States distribution rights to the film and plans to release it in the third quarter of 2019.