A Lego Movie hybrid musical, documentary, and biopic like "Piece by Piece" is a rich concept. Presumably, the exhilaration of "Happy," producer and musician Pharrell Williams' chart-topping hit, would make his life story a perfect fit for the animated medium. After all, Williams' playful, genre-bending music (which blends post-soul cool with skater sensibility) is probably more than a live-action narrative could contain. But in the hands of director Morgan Neville, his life story lacks specificity and substance.
Neville relies on the kind of visual storytelling common to documentary filmmaking—its lifeblood—throughout "Piece by Piece." The opening, for example, borrows the aesthetic language of behind-the-scenes documentaries: a camera follows a Lego Pharrell (voicing himself) from behind as he enters his house.
Director: Morgan Neville
Writers: Morgan Neville, Jason Zeldes, Aaron Wickenden
Stars: Pharrell Williams, Morgan Neville, Kendrick Lamar
The singer asks his wife, Helen, to quiet the children because he's about to be interviewed. Pharrell and the camera move to a separate room, where two chairs are set up: one for him and one for a Lego version of Neville. The filmmaker then encourages the star to tell his life story, inspiring Pharrell to imagine himself as a baby sea creature swimming through the ocean toward Neptune, the Roman god of the sea. This dreamlike origin transports us to the shores of Virginia Beach, Pharrell's hometown, where he lives at the Atlantis resort with his mother and father.
From then on, the film adopts the usual rise-and-fall format typical of music biopics. At high school, Pharrell connects with Pusha T, Missy Elliot, Timbaland, and his eventual Neptunes collaborators, Chad Hugo and Shay Haley. The band impresses superstar music producer Teddy Riley, inspiring Williams and Hugo to maximize their creative potential. This leads to collaborations with Gwen Stefani, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake, and many more. The plethora of hits, of course, gives the film its jukebox appeal. But visually, Neville recreates the music videos for "Hollaback Girl" and "Drop It Like It's Hot" with Lego bricks, which is rather boring. Pharrell's success stories then become the main conflict, as he pushes himself too hard as both a hitmaker and a fashion and product line manager.
It all feels rather monotonous. Biopics, especially when the protagonist is involved, are always sanitized. Despite the film's fondness for often-censored expletives, "Piece by Piece" is too clean. Pharrell's main flaws in this film are summed up as "I'm too confident" and "I'm afraid of commitment." The former gets him into trouble with A&R managers, who polish his musical complexity. The second occurs in his music, jumping from one genre to another, and in his personal life, with his girlfriend and future wife. These obstacles are anything but boring. But they can't be the sum total of a person's complexity. Rather, Neville emphasizes Pharrell's faith in God, his devotion to his friends—such as helping a struggling Pusha T achieve success—and his seemingly limitless creativity as major themes.
Those goals leave many other narrative questions unanswered. Neville and Pharrell insist that the Neptunes had a music contract with Teddy Riley, but it's never explained how the group broke it once they found representation. Pharrell's parents appear as comic relief, but not much else is revealed about them. Pharrell's songwriting process is compared to assembling Lego pieces until they glow, like the lightbulb on a great idea. Nothing else is said about his actual methodology.
Above all, the film rarely finds clever ways to discuss Pharrell's inner life. The sequences where the artist's synesthesia is depicted on screen are the exception, roaring like vibrant, blooming shades of hypnotic color. There are other whimsical moments, like a statue of Neptune coming to life or Pharrell imagining being abandoned at sea by nefarious A&R agents. But this film is never as playful as it's made out to be.
In contrast, the over-the-top, sloppy "Piece by Piece" constantly struggles to meet the requirements of its genre. The musical sequences lack originality, the Lego animation fails to rise above the expected brilliance, the biographical elements are overly controlled, and the humor is intermittent. Also: Who exactly is this film aimed at? With its heavy expletives, it's certainly not for children. And its animated nature makes one wonder how many adults will be drawn to a film that strives for purity. "Piece by Piece" simply lacks too many elements.
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