A combination of a musical and documentary into a Lego movie like “Piece by Piece” is truly wonderful. Most likely, the life of producer/musician Pharrell Williams would seamlessly integrate with the animated world because he is the genius who brought us Happy, one of the most popular songs of all time. In William’s case, spirit and lively creativity are indescribable which makes it really tedious for a live-action narrative. Still, Williams’ life was devoid of these 2 factors in the firm Morgan Neville.
Throughout the documentary “Piece by Piece”, Neville greatly relies on the kind of visual storytelling he is most exempt at, which is documentary filmmaking. For example, the introizations of the movie capture the behind-the-scenes documentary aesthetic rather well. When ‘Pharrell Lego’ (who voices himself) enters his house, the camera is set behind him. Pharrell says to his wife, Helen, “Please quiet the kids. I have an interview.” After that, he moves to another room with the camera where he finds a chair for himself and a Lego one for the director, Neville. The fantastic filmmaker puts the star Pharrel in the chair and tells him to share his life narrative. This gives Neville a glimpse of what it was like for Pharrell, who was a baby sea creature swimming through the ocean towards King Neptune, the Roman god of the ocean. The origin of his dreams drags us to the seaside of Virginia Beach where Neville has always resided in the Atlantis projects with his mother and father.
As the biopic dives deeper, it adopts the common lower, middle, and eventually upper portion story structure. At The grammar school, Pharrell meets Pusha T, Missy Elliot, and Timbaland and even gets to work with his future Neptunes members; Chad Hugo and Shay Haley. The group wows the famed music producer Teddy Riley and motivates Williams and Hugo to harness their full creative capabilities.
This opens doors to collaborations with Gwen Stefani, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake, and many more. As expected, the number of hits adds to the film’s jukebox appeal. However, as always, Neville does not impress me when he makes the music videos for ‘Hollaback Girl’ and ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’ using Legos. This gives him a Legoish feel. Pharrell’s struggles with achievement then essentially become the primary issue as he over-exerts, trying to be both a successful writer and a fashion and merchandise designer.
Everything seems rather unexciting. When a subject participates in a biopic, their story is always polished and easier to digest. Even though the film loves the unspoken, “Piece by Piece” took it too far. In his film, he says of Pharrell, “I’m too trusting” and “I’m terrified of commitment.” The former is why he rubs A&R men the wrong way as they strive to flatten his multi-layered approach to music. The latter is what leads him to pick up different styles in his music and lifestyle, his now ex-girlfriend and ex-wife. These certainly are interesting challenges, but cannot define the depth of a person. Instead, Neville articulates that what is the defining element of Pharrell is his belief in God, how he never abandons his friends like an unfortunate Pusha T, and his endless streams of creativity.
The story lacks coherence to the point where most questions remain unanswered. While Neville and Pharrell stress that Teddy Riley was their first music business partner, they don’t go into detail about how the group was able to find managers and managers got them out of the contract. Pharrell’s mom and dad are poor and serve to lighten the mood, but not much else is fleshed out about them.
For Pharrell, writing songs is like assembling Legos where the final product glimmers. No further details are provided regarding how he goes about the composition.
And most notably, the feature doesn’t seem to conceive creative methods to discuss the topic of Pharrell’s psyche. The artist’s synesthesia is achingly vivid, bursting kaleidoscopic spells of color that are the only representation on-screen that screams rather than shouts. There are other whimsical moments, like a statue of Neptune going animated or Pharrell picturing himself being abandoned in the ocean by twisted A&R dudes. Yet, the movie is never quite as whimsical as it tries to convince you.
Instead, the artlessly absent ‘Piece by Piece’ is always desperate to cover all of its bases, and in a genre-mixed-overloaded film, it is never easy. Each may see its own aesthetic to portray, but the Lego animation is lacking, the musical parts are too predictable, the biopic parts too constricted, and the humor disappears in the parts where it is expected. Also: whose movie is this, after all? If this is the case then children will certainly not find it appropriate and the swearing will make you consider how many will actually want to watch a film that alters between over and under-satirical.
Sadly, ‘Piece by Piece’ is missing so many sections that it makes you wonder why it was written in the first place.
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