The past never leaves us alone. It's always lingering, like a shadow or rain cloud. Still, even with this reality, life does go on. Just as the members of the Charles family circa. 1936. Boy Willie Charles (John David Washington) has grand ambitions to buy up a pot of land that his family used to work on as slaves and servants. The thing is, though, he needs some money to make that purchase a reality. His idea is to go up to Pittsburgh with his associate Lymon (Ray Fisher) and sell his family's piano. That costly heirloom is lingering in the living room of his sister Berniece Charles (Danielle Deadwyler), who hasn't touched it since the family suffered a great tragedy.
Boy Willie Charles strolls into this household, which also includes Berniece's daughter Maretha (Skylar Aleece Smith) and their uncle Doaker (Samuel L. Jackson), determined to take this piano. Berniece won't budge. She won't let this thing leave her house. Inevitably, these two siblings, who have always been at each other's throats, begin quarreling. As their tense conflict simmers, a new threat emerges in Berniece’s house. She’s convinced that the ghost of James Sutter, a white slaveowner who used to possess the Charles family, is haunting her domicile. Supernatural and emotional reflections of the past are now inescapable for everyone.
The Piano Lesson is the latest major film adaptation of an August Wilson play. Malcolm Washington makes his feature-length film debut helming this adaptation (he also penned the script with Virgil Williams). Though it’s handled by a new filmmaker compared to past Wilson adaptations like Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, like its spiritual predecessors, consistently works best as a showcase for talented performers handling meaty dialogue. The same qualities that define the greatest stage shows (which Wilson’s tremendous works surely qualify as) are also typically the shiniest virtues of play adaptations like The Piano Lesson.
In that respect, the champion of The Piano Lesson is certainly Danielle Deadwyler. That's no surprise given both Deadwyler's extensive experience in the Atlanta, Georgia theatre scene as well as her exceptional work in the 2022 movie Till. Even with that precedent, it's still remarkable to witness her magic at work in The Piano Lesson. Anytime the script just lets Berniece take control of the screen, Deadwyler grips your attention effortlessly. There’s a scene midway through where she's chastising the men surrounding her as all being emblematic of a single systematic problem. In Deadwyler’s delivery, you can just feel years of pain dripping from every word Berniece emits.
Similarly absorbing is a later sequence where local preacher Avery Brown (Corey Hawkins) tries to propose to Berniece. This action, complete with Brown suggesting Berniece will finally be whole with a man by her side, inspires a monologue from Berniece about her identity and ambitions. Deadwyler imbues these deliveries with such fierce conviction. Meanwhile, a pivotal climactic set piece puts all its faith in Deadwyler's ability to deliver intense, deeply committed line deliveries. That faith turns out to be more than justified. Tasked with repeating one line repeatedly, Deadwyler still more than keeps your attention.
Several actors provide solid work in The Piano Lesson. It’s Danielle Deadwyler, though, who really flourishes with emotional verve in these confines. Speaking of that Berniece-centric finale, this set piece is the culmination of Malcolm Washington’s interesting incorporation of horror movie imagery into the proceedings. Like fellow 2020s play adaptation The Father, The Piano Lesson uses scary cinema visual motifs to lend extra insight into its characters and offer audiences something they can’t see on stage. Washington proves quite adept with such material. That big finale is an especially well-realized creation, particularly when it comes to the timing of certain apparitions appearing and disappearing between shots.
The rest of The Piano Lesson is more on the side of serviceable than remarkable. Alexandre Desplat's score, for instance, is one of his more rudimentary creations. It sometimes lacks a discernible personality and especially could’ve been more creatively intertwined with the horror aspects of The Piano Lesson. Thankfully, Wilson’s specific style of dialogue proves arresting enough to compensate for more perfunctory aspects of this adaptation. A straightforward adaptation of his words handled by talented actors is still a reasonably engaging experience.
Samuel L. Jackson, for instance, is a welcome presence as Doaker. Jackson's always had the chops to thrive in grounded, dramatic confines, but it's still good to see him reaffirm that reality here. The two male leads, John David Washington and Ray Fisher aren't quite as idiosyncratic in either their physicality or line deliveries as, say, Deadwyler. Washington’s pronounced Southern drawl for Boy Willie Charles especially at times feels a bit at odds with the movie’s intimate scope. That’s the kind of vocal flourish that would be perfect for the stage, where you’re practically called upon to go big or go home. Within a feature film simulating reality, his vocals occasionally ineffectively clash with the other more naturalistic performances. Still, Washington doesn't actively drag the movie down and, hey, it's certainly nice to see Fisher in a major movie again.
Washington and cinematographer Mike Gioulakis lend The Piano Lesson a typical visual style when it comes to routine sequences of characters exchanging dialogue. However, the pair lean into more distinctive impulses when sudden visions of the past fill up the screen. These outdoor sequences gloriously utilize natural light and low-angle shots to accentuate a dreamlike quality to these flashbacks. Especially evocative is the lighting and camera positioning when Berniece recalls her deceased husband holding in her river. These lovely touches really emphasize why these Piano Lesson characters cherish these particular segments of their past.
Creating a distinctive visual barrier between the past and present also lends extra depth to The Piano Lesson’s ruminations on these two time periods. Everybody in this cast has a differing idea on grappling with yesteryear in the here and now. Exploring those varying approaches doesn’t result in an incarnation of The Piano Lesson as groundbreaking or form-shattering as Wilson’s original play. Malcolm Washington’s directorial debut, though still demonstrates some imagery-based flair and lets Danielle Deadwyler reaffirm her artistic prowess.