A still from The Piano Lesson, directed by Malcolm Washington. (Photo: Netflix)
It is easy, one would imagine, for a filmmaker to be overwhelmed by the words of the great August Wilson. Especially if they’ve never made a film before. Musical and marauding, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright’s language is a vessel for the ambition and anger of his people. Netflix’s The Piano Lesson — the latest adaptation of Wilson’s celebrated Pittsburgh Cycle of plays — is directed by the debutante Malcolm Washington, whose father, the legendary Denzel Washington, has publicly devoted this stage of his career to shepherding Wilson’s work onto the screen.
The older Washington himself directed the very faithful Fences, and produced the equally impressive Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which was helmed by George C Wolfe and nearly won Chadwick Boseman a posthumous Oscar. The Piano Lesson is perhaps the most cinematic adaptation of the lot, confidently enhancing Wilson’s words with lush imagery that would’ve been difficult to achieve on the stage. It announces the young Washington as a director to watch out for, aided ably as he is by his esteemed father and his older brother, John David, who plays the film’s protagonist, Boy Willie.
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In the opening scene itself, Washington asserts a bold original vision, respectful of the source material, but not reverential to it. As bright fireworks illuminate the night sky, a young Black boy and his father make a clandestine escape from a plantation. In their cart, there is an item of great value. Washington cuts a few years into the future, to the year 1936; the child is now a grown man — Boy Willie. Joined by his buddy Lymon (Ray Fisher), Boy Willie hops into a truck laden with watermelons and shows up unannounced (and uninvited) to his older sister Berniece’s home in Pittsburgh, which she shares with their uncle, Doaker (Samuel L Jackson) and her young daughter Maretha.
There is an unspoken tension between the siblings, and it’s clear that Berniece doesn’t want Boy Willie around her. But there is a purpose behind his visit. The land upon which their ancestors toiled is up for sale, he tells her; the last descendant of the white family that enslaved them suspiciously fell to his death in a well. Boy Willie intends to buy that land, and for that, he needs Berniece’s cooperation. He can sell the truckload of watermelons that he and Lymon rode into town with, but that won’t be enough. To be able to afford the property, he will need to sell the ornate piano stationed symbolically in the living room of Berniece’s home.
What unfolds is a clash of ideologies and identities. While Boy Willie believes that taking control of the land is the correct way to honour his family, Berniece’s way of dealing with the traumas that she has inherited is by holding onto the heirloom — the piano is engraved with the faces of her father, mother and grandfather. She views herself as the custodian of her culture, and even though she hasn’t used the piano in years, she insists that it must remain with her. Played by Danielle Deadwyler in a haunting performance that adds a layer of melancholy to the fiery exchanges that fuel the film, the character slowly takes over as the protagonist from Boy Willie.
Washington plays the character like a charming grifter. He has the power to pull people into his schemes, as is evidenced by the unquestioning presence of the rather naive Lymon. It is also implied that Boy Willie had some role to play in the passing of Berniece’s husband, Crowley, whom she is still clearly mourning. She doesn’t hesitate to accuse him of pushing the landowner, Sutter, to his death in the well. But Boy Willie maintains his innocence, blaming Sutter’s demise on the ghosts of the slaves that were killed by Sutter’s family. The Piano Lesson is a highly-charged drama, but it is also a horror story.
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Haunted as both Boy Willie and Berniece are by spectres of the past, they are also paid a visit by an actual ghost. The film’s climax involves an exorcism. These flamboyant diversions give (Malcolm) Washington plenty of opportunity to flex his (surprisingly well-developed) visual style. Aided by cinematographer Mike Gioulakis, who has worked on horror films directed by David Robert Mitchell, M Night Shyamalan, and Jordan Peele, Washington uses the language of cinema to elevate the words on the page. The Piano Lesson is a complex and compelling addition to his father’s ongoing crusade to commemorate Wilson — until he produces another film, this will remain one of the best contemporary trilogies in American cinema.
The Piano Lesson
Director – Malcolm Washington
Cast – John David Washington, Samuel L Jackson, Danielle Deadwyler, Ray Fisher, Corey Hawkins, Michael Potts
Rating – 4.5/5
