Denzel Washington directed Fences (2016), an adaptation of the August Wilson play. It was reported that Washington would produce all of Wilson's plays set in Pittsburgh. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) was the second Wilson play that Washington produced. He didn't direct it. This film is the third and again Washington didn't direct it. Instead, he turned over directing duties to his second-born son, Malcolm Washington. The 1987 play came back to Broadway as a revival in 2023 and that cast included Denzel's first-born son, John David Washington. The Pulitzer Prize-winning stage production was adapted before in an Emmy-nominated TV program in 1995, but this version feels bigger, even though the physical space looks smaller. This film also feels more cinematic with Malcolm Washington doing way more bold things than even Wilson had conceived.
What the 1995 program did is underline the fact that Wilson's play was really a commentary on the legacy of slavery and the lasting effect it had on African American families and community. It also underlined the historical importance of the titular object. It was about how people handle or value things left behind from loved ones or ancestors. It was also about how people hold onto the past and how others choose to move forward. Wilson's play incorporated some supernatural elements, but even in the 1995 production, those elements were left more ambiguous as to whether they were real or figments of psychological and historical trauma. This film takes those same elements and pushes them till the film starts to feel like a horror flick in the vein of The Exorcist (1973).
Otherwise, this narrative paints a portrait of a family that migrated from Mississippi to Pennsylvania, from the south to the north, which is similar to the opening of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. That migration didn't come without pain and bloodshed, not without death and destruction. However, we learn that some of the family members have been bifurcated. Some still live down south and others live up north. This bifurcation is really between a brother and sister. The brother lives down south and the sister lives up north. The siblings aren't just separated by geography but also by grief.
John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman and Monsters and Men) stars as Boy Willie Charles, the brother who lives down south. He worked on a farm owned by a man named Sutter. He's done other odd jobs, mostly as a fast-talking salesman, hustling to sell whatever he can. When Sutter dies and his land goes on the market, Boy Willie comes up with a plan to raise the money to buy that land. Part of his plan is to sell the piano that was handed down from his family, which is clearly worth a lot.
The Piano Lesson. Danielle Deadwyler as Berniece in The Piano Lesson. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix
Danielle Deadwyler (Till and The Harder They Fall) co-stars as Berniece Charles, the sister who lives up north. She works as a maid. She still lives in her family's home where the piano is. When her brother arrives, she's adamant about not letting Boy Willie sell that piano. There are several reasons why. First is because the piano is made of wood and that wood has carvings on it, made by her father that tell their family's history. Second, her mother loved when Berniece would play on that piano, so it has sentimental value to her. Thirdly, Berniece is just angry at Boy Willie.
What's revealed is that Berniece is a single parent, like her mother before her. The reason she's single is because her husband was killed, much like how her father was killed. Berniece's husband was murdered in some kind of incident involving Boy Willie. Boy Willie didn't kill her husband, but he was there, so Berniece blames Boy Willie for the death. It's also the case that Berniece is more religious and spiritual than her brother and she comes to believe that her house is being haunted by Sutter due to Boy Willie being there. This haunting affects her relationships with everyone. The 1995 program kept this haunting idea as a figurative and metaphorical one. Here, Malcolm Washington makes the haunting a vastly more literal thing. It's a bold move to turn Wilson's play into a horror film and I applaud Washington for doing so, but I don't think he leans into that horror aspect enough.
Along the way, we see Berniece have two potential, love interests. One is the friend to Boy Willie named Lymon who is more awkward, not as educated and more of a drifter. The other is Avery, a preacher who is more sophisticated, more articulate and confident or bold. The 1995 program does a better job of distinguishing between Lymon and Avery, particularly in the casting. Both Avery and Lymon try to kiss Berniece, but, in the 1995 program, it makes sense why she would back away from one and lean into the other. Here, it doesn't make much sense.
Ray Fisher (Zack Snyder's Justice League and True Detective) plays Lymon and Corey Hawkins who worked with Denzel Washington in The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) and worked with John David Washington in BlacKkKlansman plays Avery. Both Fisher and Hawkins are young and attractive men. In the 1995 program, the actors are wildly different. One is older and not as attractive, so it's easy to see why Berniece would prefer one over the other. Here, that preference isn't clear. Given this narrative only takes place over the course of a few days, there's not enough time to develop them fully, but the film still could've done more to distinguish in Berniece's mind why she would accept the advances of one but not the other.
Ultimately, it doesn't matter because this film isn't a romance. It's a horror flick and Berniece's interactions with these men is more to demonstrate how she's dealing with her grief and her losses, as they manifest as literal ghosts. Yet, it should be noted that even though Fisher and Deadwyler hadn't worked together before this film, both of them within the past two years have both been in productions about Emmett Till.
Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers and Pulp Fiction) rounds out the cast as Doaker Charles, the uncle and current patriarch of the family. His character didn't really add much to this film. He helps to connect the dots to things that happened in the past, as the past and how we're connected to it is an important theme. However, Malcolm Washington's cinematography and direction connect those dots just as much.
Rated PG-13 for strong language, some violent content and smoking.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 7 mins.
Available on Netflix.