Piece By Piece Review
Pharrell Williams and LEGO have partnered up with each other to produce a LEGO movie centered around Pharrell’s life, ‘Piece by Piece’. It’s a new take on the musician biopic genre that’s blossomed in the last few years. The film thankfully employs several differences to avoid it from becoming just another biopic. It captures Pharrall’s life in perfect brick form in a tight film, giving audiences an insight into the singer’s life, all the backing of the man’s incredible talent.
The film is gorgeously rendered in LEGO bricks, with not a hint of the normal human world in sight. It looks like an audience member could play with the world themselves, taking it apart, piece by piece. This have been painstakingly done over a long time, and this shows in flawless sequences. It’s something that’s evident right from the first frame, where a young Pharrell displays his love of the water.
This is something movie simply wouldn’t have been able to do in live-action, and it’s not the only example. The colours for example, are vibrant and bold, and the animation allows more imaginative acts to play out on the screen, lining up with Pharrell’s heightened sense of mind and synesthesia. It’s a fantastic choice. And, as mentioned, it helps it stand out from an increasing crowd of live-action biopics, all of which share common attributes.
‘Piece By Piece’ shows Pharrell’s meteoric rise to fame, as the biopic shows his early years, introduction to music, and then his career that took off like a rocket ship. While it does show some of the potential pitfalls of fame, it largely puts those down to corporate interference, so it sands down the impact and faults on Pharrell’s part. It seems like an overly idyllic version of Pharrell’s life, not to say that he wasn’t happy most of the time or had a good life, but it seems sanded down to only show positivity. But this positivity is infectious for the audience, and there is some good insight into Pharell’s life that can be seen here.
Structurally, the film has director Morgan Neville interview Pharrell and important figures in the man’s life, and that acts as a voiceover for what’s happening on screen. This helps give the film a more documentary feel to it, rather than a dramatic reinterpretation most biopics shoot for, again setting it apart from the crowd. It also works in another way, as there’s no longer a reliance on actors to try and inhabit the character of Pharrell and co., the real people themselves can candidly talk about events. It shifts responsibility onto the animators, but as previously mentioned they’ve done a fantastic job with the look of the film.
Of course, none of this would work without Pharell’s strong musical talent, which is consistently displayed throughout the film. Tracks are overlayed throughout the film, and there is also the original track, ‘Piece By Piece’ – the where the film takes its title from – which talks about Pharrell’s desire to write his life story moving piece by piece until his life has been built into something beautiful. It’s a great track that fits with the film.
‘Piece By Piece’ is not only technical achievement, with the LEGO style adding vibrance and unlocking the means of showing Pharrell’s imagination on screen. Pharrell’s story is also told in a unique manner, helping to avoid it just becoming yet another biopic in an ever-crowded field. While the story feels a bit too sanded down to be fully believed, the infectious music that sits behind it will not fail to get audiences dancing in their seats. And if it achieves, that, it’s a success.
