''A Million Little Pieces'' is a 2018

psychological drama Psychological drama or psychodrama is a sub-genre of drama that places emphasis on psychological elements. It often overlaps with other genres such as crime, fantasy, black comedy, and science fiction, and it is closely related with the psychologic ...

film directed by

Sam Taylor-Johnson Samantha Louise Taylor-Johnson OBE (née Taylor-Wood; 4 March 1967) is a British filmmaker and photographer. Her directorial feature film debut was 2009's ''Nowhere Boy'', a film based on the childhood experiences of The Beatles songwriter an ...

, and written by Sam and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Based on the 2003 semi-fictional book of the same name by

James Frey James Frey (born September 12, 1969) is an American writer and businessman. His first two books, ''A Million Little Pieces'' (2003) and '' My Friend Leonard'' (2005), were bestsellers marketed as memoirs. Large parts of the stories were later f ...

, it follows Frey, a drug-addicted young man, who checks himself into a rehabilitation center to battle his addiction. Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as Frey, and co-stars

Billy Bob Thornton Billy Bob Thornton (born August 4, 1955) is an American actor, filmmaker and musician. He had his first break when he co-wrote and starred in the 1992 thriller ''One False Move'', and received international attention after writing, directing, a ...

, Odessa Young,

Giovanni Ribisi Antonino Giovanni Ribisi (; born December 17, 1974) is an American actor known for his starring roles in the TV series ''Sneaky Pete'' and the films ''Avatar'' (2009), '' Lost in Translation'' (2003), '' Ted'' (2012) and its sequel '' Ted 2'' (2 ...

, Juliette Lewis, and Charlie Hunnam. ''A Million Little Pieces'' premiered at the 2018

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

, and was released in the United States by

Momentum Pictures Momentum Pictures is a film distributor and a subsidiary of Entertainment One, itself part of Hasbro. Prior to 2013, it was a brand of Canadian distributor Alliance Films used for its releases in the United Kingdom, and was one of the leading in ...

on December 6, 2019, and internationally by Entertainment One. It received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

Cast

* Aaron Taylor-Johnson as

as Leonard * Odessa Young as Lilly *

as John Everett * Juliette Lewis as Joanne * Charlie Hunnam as Bob Frey, Jr. *

David Dastmalchian David Dastmalchian (; born July 21, 1975) is an American film and stage actor. He has had supporting roles in a number of superhero franchises; he portrayed Thomas Schiff in ''The Dark Knight'', Kurt in the first two Marvel Cinematic Universe ...

as Roy * Charles Parnell as Miles Davis *

Andy Buckley Andrew P. Buckley Jr. (born February 13, 1965) is an American actor and financial analyst best known for his role as David Wallace on the NBC comedy series ''The Office'' from 2006 to 2013. Early life Buckley was born in Salem, Massachusetts, ...

as Dr. Stevens *

Ryan Hurst Ryan Douglas Hurst (born June 19, 1976) is an American actor, known for his roles as Gerry Bertier in ''Remember the Titans'' (2000), Sgt. Ernie Savage in ''We Were Soldiers'' (2002), Tom Clarke in '' Taken'' (2002), Opie Winston in the FX dram ...

as Hank *

Dash Mihok Dashiell Raymond Mihok (; born May 24, 1974) is an American actor and director best known for playing Brendan "Bunchy" Donovan in the Showtime drama '' Ray Donovan''. Early life Mihok was born in New York City, the son of theater actors Andrea ...

as Lincoln *

Eugene Byrd Eugene Byrd (born August 28, 1975) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Wink in the film '' 8 Mile'' and Dr. Clark Edison on the FOX series '' Bones''. Early life Byrd was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Gre ...

as Matty *

Tom Amandes Tom Amandes (born March 9, 1959) is an American actor. His best-known role to date is that of Eliot Ness in the 1990s television series ''The Untouchables''; he also played Geena Davis' boyfriend in '' The Long Kiss Goodnight'', and Abraham Lin ...

as Dr. Baker *Dominic Pace as Cecil *Drake Andrew as Ed *Deep Rai as Ticket Officer *Keith Barber as Old White Man

Production

Initial rights for a film adaptation were held by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

, which had shelved the project after it emerged the book was not a memoir as promoted, and the author

fabricated elements of the story. In October 2017,

was announced to be directing the film, with her husband Aaron Taylor-Johnson attached to star. In January 2018,

Carla Juri Carla Juri (born 2 January 1985) is a Swiss actress. Her acting credits include ''180°'', ''Wetlands'', ''Finsterworld'' and ''Blade Runner 2049''. Early life and education Juri was raised in Ambrì, a village in the Italian-speaking Canton ...

, Charlie Hunnam and

were added to the cast, with production beginning on January 25.

and Juliette Lewis were cast a few days later. Odessa Young and Charles Parnell joined the cast in February, with Young replacing Juri.

Music

Atticus Ross Atticus Matthew Cowper Ross (born 16 January 1968) is an English musician, record producer, composer, and audio engineer. Along with Trent Reznor, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for '' The Social Network'' in 2010. In 2013, th ...

Leopold Ross Leopold "Leo" Ross is an English musician, record producer, recording engineer and music programmer. Leopold is a guitarist in LA based band Io Echo. Career Leopold was a founding member of eclectic rock band Nojahoda who released one alb ...

and Claudia Sarne composed the film's score. Republic Records released the soundtrack with a score suite from the composers and songs by

Otis Redding Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. ...

Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during ...

The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. The original line-up consisted of singer/guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. MacLise ...

Greta Van Fleet Greta Van Fleet is an American rock band from Frankenmuth, Michigan, formed in 2012. It consists of Kiszka brothers Josh (vocals), Jake (guitar) and Sam (bass guitar, keyboards); and Danny Wagner (drums). They were signed to Lava Records in M ...

and others.

Release

''A Million Little Pieces'' premiered at the

in 2018. The film was released in select theaters and video-on-demand in the United States by

on December 6, 2019, and internationally by Entertainment One (who also owns Momentum). Additionally the film was released on DVD in the United States by

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (formerly Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Video, MCA/Universal Home Video, MCA Home Video, MCA Videodisc and MCA Videocassette, Inc.) is the home video distribution division of Am ...

on January 6, 2020.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives the film an approval rating of , based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's consensus reads, "While solidly cast and competently helmed, ''A Million Little Pieces'' amounts to little more than a well-intentioned but unpersuasive echo of a deeply problematic memoir."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gave the film a score of 45 out of 100 based on the opinions of 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Million Little Pieces, A 2018 films Films directed by Sam Taylor-Wood Films based on American novels Films scored by Atticus Ross Films set in 1993 Films set in the 1990s Films about substance abuse 2010s English-language films