Review: Piece By Piece follows the instructions too closely

I'm always a little caught off-guard when a documentary comes out about a famous person who's still young, kicking, going strong. I get it for someone who's in their twilight years, who has a whole career to look back on, lots to reminisce about. Or for a dead person, obviously. But for someone like Pharrell Williams, it seems a bit odd, premature. Sure, most of his best work is probably behind him at this point, but he's only 51. He has many years to go, and clearly still has a lot of music to share.

So when I heard about Piece By Piece, my sense of "Huh?" was two-fold. I, like most people I assume, was confused why we were getting a LEGO-animated documentary about him. But I was also confused why we were getting a documentary about him at all, at this point. After watching the movie, from celebrated director Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom, Won't You Be My Neighbor?), I'm still wondering.

I read the THR piece about Williams last month, and came away with it for a newfound appreciation for the guy. He seems, by all accounts, to be a really decent dude, and he's obviously a massive talent, arguably a genius at what he does. Finding out about all of the songs he produced over the years is like reading the soundtrack of my teenage years. It's one of the pleasures of Piece By Piece, too, hearing all the music that he helped bring to life (most of which, arguably, he was the driving force behind). So many of his collaborators appear as themselves, too, to sing his praises both personally and professionally: Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Gwen Stefani, Pusha T, the list goes on and on. It's an amazing career, to be sure.

But the story of Williams' life is, honestly, pretty familiar, and not all that exciting. He comes from humble roots, struggled a bit in school, found a path when he joined the music program, worked really hard, made it big, stumbled a bit, and then found his way some more. It's the kind of story that I imagine is shared by a lot of musicians, and begs the question: is someone being famous and successful enough of a reason to make a movie about their life? I would argue no.

Which brings us to the LEGO of it all. Within the movie, the creative decision is mentioned a couple times, and it's sold to us up top as the only way Williams will be comfortable telling his story (is also seems to be a factor in his wife being willing to give an interview for the film, something she's never done before). In a film that doesn't delve too deeply into who Williams is as a person, it's one of the few insights that seems to carry any weight. It's echoed in his reluctance to launch himself as a solo artist, in his manic attempts to throw himself into far-flung business ventures that might not make any sense, in his struggle to understand that he doesn't need to define himself because he is himself. That shyness, that grappling with identity, is about as much as we get into the person behind the artist, but it also feels like it might just be a convenient way to sell the gimmick that feels more like a Band-aid to give a pretty perfunctory something more interesting to latch onto.

And the movie gets some solid mileage out of the LEGOs. There are some funny sight gags (a young Williams trying to do the Vulcan salute got a big laugh in my theater), and obviously the aesthetic provides a lot of opportunities to add color, lightness, and kinetic energy to the proceedings. I like the pulsing colored grooves that symbolize his synesthesia, or the way the beats he produces are symbolized by combinations of a few small bricks. These creative flourishes really sell the creative decision, and make it feel like maybe there's more to it than just trying to give the film an easy hook.

Ultimately, though, I don't think there's enough here to latch onto. Williams comes off looking great, a family man, a musical genius, someone who gets back up when he stumbles and falls. That's all well and fine, but who is the man beneath the hat (/behind the mini-fig)? For that, I think we'll need another documentary, one that wants to put in a little more work and a little less play.