The Piano Lesson Is An Impressive Directorial Debut by Malcolm Washington

Adapting a stage play to cinema can be tricky business. Often the intimacy and defined parameters of a theater setting become a problematic albatross for screenwriters and directors trying to stay faithful to the spirit of the work. In the wake of Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson’s death in 2005, Denzel Washington has made it a personal priority to shepherd the playwright’s works to film for wider audiences. He starred in and produced Fences in 2016, and then produced 2020’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and the latest, The Piano Lesson. And each adaptation has gotten progressively stronger, culminating here in director Malcolm Washington’s feature directorial debut, where his fresh eyes on the play, confidence with his actors and overall inventive approach to the themes and subtext of the play result in the best film of the trilogy.

Wilson’s play centers on the generational legacy of the Charles family, most recently of Sunflower, Mississippi. Just two generations separated from slavery, and still victims of the violence of the segregated South, siblings Boy Willie Charles (John David Washington) and Berniece Charles (Danielle Deadwyler) are living their adult lives separately. In Sunflower, Boy Willie’s got an opportunity to buy 150 acres of land from the family who enslaved his grandparents and great-grandparents if he can come up with the last bit of money to make the sale. Widow Berniece, meanwhile, lives in a nice house in Pittsburgh with their uncle Doakes (Samuel L. Jackson) as she raises young Maretha (Skylar Aleece Smith) in a relatively more progressive part of the country. As far as they’ve come, the family is still haunted by their recent past. Their ancestor’s trauma is literally personified in the intricately carved Charles family piano, which stands proudly in the front room of Berniece’s home.

For Berniece, the piano is a vessel for ghosts both literal and metaphorical. She and her mother have a sorrowful relationship with the instrument that requires Bernice, and in turn her daughter, to have distance from it. For Boy Willie, it’s his conduit to financial independence. If he can sell it, then he can buy the very land his late sharecropper father told him would be his path to freedom. And thus the conflict is laid out via an object that has its own particular history that will be revealed as the story unfolds.

While The Piano Lesson play narrative unfolds exclusively within the walls of the Pittsburgh house amongst an ensemble of the Charles family members and close family friends, Malcolm Washington wisely opens up the film’s locales as much as he can. Stories told in exposition are reframed as prologues, or flashbacks played out in Sunflower through different eras of the Charles family ancestor’s past as slaves to the Sutter family. Yet even with those expansions, at least 70% of the film takes place inside, but there’s clearly been a tremendous amount of thought and ingenuity about how to block the scenes to keep them kinetic, visually interesting and intense when needed. And that isn’t done with obnoxiously showy camera work, or anachronistic transitions. Rather, the director is thoughtful about keeping his actors framed for maximum impact whether they’re engaged in heated debates, personal stories or even a sing-a-long around the kitchen table. Even though there’s a fair amount of exposition and character monologues, especially by John David Washington’s loquacious Boy Willie, the director and editor Leslie Jones keep an energy to the scenes that doesn’t bog down the overall story for the most part. The exceptional cast also simply knows how to spin a yarn, which means spending time with these characters never leans into tedious territory. Jackson in particular is a steady hand, doing wonders with his broader exposition moments or smaller tasks of playing referee for the squabbling siblings.

As John David Washington gets older, it’s almost uncanny how much he sometimes echoes the look and cadence of his father, Denzel. But he’s particularly coming into his own as a formidable actor in this piece, playing Boy Willie’s bluster and interior fortitude with a lot of considered maturity. Deadwyler does even heavier work here as the family member literally carrying the sorrow of her whole family on her shoulders, while trying not to be swallowed up by the past or what is expected of her societally. She gets supported nicely by a quiet and compassionate performance by Ray Fisher as Boy Willie’s friend, Lymon. Michael Potts as Winning Boy and Corey Hawkins as Avery also do fine work, providing a lot of contextual flavor to the family from their outsider’s perspectives, which makes the narrative feel less insular.

Perhaps the most impactful adjustment to this piece, though, is how Malcolm Washington leans into the gothic supernatural elements literally haunting this family. He’s woven throughout a simmering yet potent horror film-within-a-film that creates layers of dread and mystery that really pays off emotionally in the final act. Supported well by Mike Gioulakis’ eerie cinematography and Alexandre Desplat’s restrained score, the emphasis on the ghostly manifestations of their past inside their house, and in this piano, gives Wilson’s subtext a more pointed interpretation that arguably only a film, with all of its more subtle layers of aesthetic design, could pull off so well. Malcolm Washington is very assured with his blending of genres, which honors and invigorates Wilson’s classic play. The Piano Lesson is an adaptation, and a directorial debut that absolutely has me excited for what he attempts next.

Director: Malcolm Washington
Writer: Virgil Williams and Malcolm Washington, based on August Wilson’s play
Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Danielle Deadwyler, Ray Fisher
Release date: November 22, 2024 (Netflix)

Tara Bennett is a Los Angeles-based writer covering film, television and pop culture for publications such as SFX Magazine, NBC Insider, IGN and more. She’s also written official books on Sons of Anarchy, Outlander, Fringe, The Story of Marvel Studios, Avatar: The Way of Water and the latest, The Art of Ryan Meinerding. You can follow her on Twitter @TaraDBennett, Bluesky @tarabennett.bsky.social, or Instagram @TaraDBen