Movie Review: The Washington Family Tells a Ghost Story in August Wilson’s ‘The Piano Lesson’

An heirloom piano takes on enormous significance for a 1936 Pittsburgh family in August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson.” Generational ties are also reflected in the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington’s footsteps by helping to bring the entire Pittsburgh Cycle – a series of ten plays – to the screen.

Malcolm Washington didn’t start from scratch with his successful feature film debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played in the play by Danielle Brooks, is now beautifully played by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it is second nature, it would be hard to go wrong. Jackson’s own history with the piece dates back to its original performance in 1987, when he was Boy Willie.

Making a play feel cinematic isn’t the easiest thing, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with “Mudbound” screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson’s text and shows us the past and origins of the intricately engraved piano at the center of all the fuss. It even opens with a large, action-packed set piece from 1911, in which the piano is stolen from a white family’s home. Another elaborates on Doaker’s monologue, in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher’s Lymon and the audience, the thing’s tortured history. While it might have been nice to keep the camera focused on Jackson, such a wonderful, grounding presence, the good news is that he really makes the storytelling shine.

Wilson purists will certainly have an opinion on these artistic choices; But they let the film breathe a bit and offered some relaxation in the living room with the menacing piano. And most of the film stays there, in 1936. Boy Willie and Lymon descend, uninvited, early one morning at the home of Berniece and her Uncle Doaker in Pittsburgh. It’s a family reunion with an agenda: They’ve driven a truckload of watermelons north from Mississippi, and Willie, Berniece’s younger brother, wants to sell the watermelons and then the piano. The dusty old instrument represents an opportunity for him to let go of the past and start a future. He wants to use the money to buy the land where his enslaved ancestors worked. Berniece has other ideas about the piano, namely loving it. It is a connection to the past, not an anchor. Plus, it could be haunted.

Yes, “The Piano Lesson,” in theaters Friday and streaming on Netflix Nov. 22, isn’t just a meditation on family history. It’s also a literal ghost story, with creaks, ghosts and shadows lurking when the piano is disturbed. Deadwyler is electric as Berniece, who bears the brunt of the terrifying, walking-on-eggshells in her life, tries to care for her young daughter and fend off moves from men who assume she can only be fulfilled with one to her side. Now she has to deal with her somewhat manic brother, who, Doaker wisely reminds, might actually, annoyingly, have a point. Perhaps the film academy will make up for its disdain for her performance in ‘Till’ with this twist.

Regardless of your familiarity with Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, “The Piano Lesson” is a valuable, engaging and moving watch packed with charismatic performers. Talent isn’t always genetic, but the Washington family does everything they can to prove otherwise. And with ‘Fences’, ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ and now ‘The Piano Lesson’ they impress with a bold and ambitious project that is probably long overdue. Only seven more to go.

“The Piano Lesson,” a Netflix release in theaters Friday and streaming Nov. 22, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “strong language, violent content, some suggestive references and smoking.” Playing time: 125 minutes. Three stars out of four.