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Based on the play of the same title, The Piano Lesson is a meaty enough script for the best actors to flex and project. Making his directorial debut, Malcolm Washington is wise enough to draw out the finest performances from his all-star ensemble. He gets them to project as loudly as though they were on stage, brimming with joy and rage as trauma of the racist past festers in their souls. It’s that boldness that makes this theatrical adaptation come alive beyond its more frightening staging.
The story, which fluctuates between fiery drama and low-key horror, is set in 1936 Pittsburgh and concerns a piano. As the opening flashback implies, this was no ordinary piano, as slaves of the South stole it. Berniece Charles (Danielle Deadwyler), residing in Pittsburgh, is the current owner of the piano and treasures it as a reminder of the pains that befell her mother as a slave. Her brother, Boy Willie (John David Washington), has grander ambitions for the piano, aiming to sell it for a chance to buy a piece of profitable land. They have a clash over the ownership while the wise elders of Doaker Charles (Samuel L. Jackson) and Wining Boy Charles (Michael Potts) extol the pangs of slavery, the music born from it, and the nihilism of age.
While all of this is going on, a supernatural force is lingering in Berniece’s house. The ghost of James Sutter, the slave master who terrorized the family, looms in the corners, threatening the family when the piano is moved or the conversations turn heated. The piano becomes the instigation and solution to these many issues, where playing it may be the only way of coming to terms with old wounds. Berniece has good reason to find resolve, considering the preacher Avery (Corey Hawkins) is trying to woo her and her curious daughter, Maretha, who is in danger. While the ghastly present is a threat, the supernatural angle is only present for a few scenes as the greater Americana drama maintains the foreground.
Every actor is chowing down hard on this script. The heated debates between Deadwyler and Washington are so brilliant in the power these two talents weave, where Berniece’s fear makes her bite and Boy Willie’s exuberance makes him bark. There’s also a stronger balance with simpler moments of family bonding that paint a more complete picture of a collective worth rooting for. Jackson has an ease in his presence, where he boasts in his storytelling, but sits back and smirks when hearing Boy Willie’s dreams or casually conversing with his granddaughter. Michael Potts, however, has my favorite passage of all these actors as he speaks with furious bitterness about how limited life’s pleasures can become. Whiskey, women, and money all seem great until you realize there’s nothing on the horizon and no chance of change. There’s an uncomfortable level of reliability in that growing-old sentiment but also a freeing aspect of catharsis.
The Piano Lesson is a buffet of remarkable performances that amplify a tale already loaded with thematic brilliance. Despite the ghost angle feeling as though it’s from a much different movie at times, the gripping dialogue carries the historical contemplation of what remains from the slave days and how hard it will be to move past those old notions. It’s good stuff made great by the abundance of incredible ensemble who sell the horrors of being haunted by ghosts of the past, figuratively and literally.
