The Piano Lesson: Denzel's Entire Family Also Rises
By Liz Braun
Rating: A
It’s impossible to write about The Piano Lesson without feeling as if you’re writing about Denzel Washington’s family — which of course, you are. Happily, we have only good things to say.
Co-written and directed by Malcolm Washington (and based on the play by August Wilson), The Piano Lesson stars John David Washington; Olivia Washington has a small role in the film and Katia Washington is an executive producer.
That accounts for all four of Denzel Washington’s children.
John David Washington, Michael Potts and Ray Fisher in the tale of a purloined piano.
The movie is dedicated to his wife and the mother of those children — Pauletta Pearson Washington — and she also has a cameo in the film.
(If you assumed the Washington children inherited their talent from their father, you’re only half right. Pauletta Washington is a singer, actress and concert pianist, but less is known about that for the usual reasons — NB: the above mentioned four children.)
The Piano Lesson is a hugely energetic, albeit often bittersweet, film. The story is built around a dispute between a brother and sister over the family piano, a possession that represents history and family identity to her. To him, the piano’s material value is a way forward to land ownership, hope and financial freedom.
She wants to keep the piano. He wants to sell it.
The Piano Lesson begins on the 4th of July, 1911, in Mississippi. While White landowners sit outside and enjoy dazzling Independence Day fireworks, a few young Black men quietly go about the business of stealing an upright piano from a grand house, and securing it on a horse-drawn buggy.
While the men flee with the piano, one stays behind to face the inevitable mob that will come calling; he eventually runs as his cabin is set on fire.
Time jumps forward 25 years. Now it’s 1936, moving toward the end of the Depression, and the action moves from the south to Pittsburgh. Two men, Boy Willie (John David Washington) and Lymon (Ray Fisher) drive a truck full of watermelons north on their way to the home of Boy Willie’s sister, Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler, riveting here).
Berniece lives in Pittsburgh with her uncle, Doaker Charles (Samuel L. Jackson); she is a widow, raising a little daughter (Skylar Aleece Smith) on her own.
Boy Willie has come north to tell Berniece that Mr. Sutter — a descendant of those who once owned the Charles’ family members as slaves — has died. According to Boy Willie, Sutter was just the latest person pushed into a well by the spirit of the Yellow Dog. Supernatural concerns aside, part of Sutter’s land is now for sale.
Boy Willie would love to own that land himself, but to do that he’ll need to sell the piano (and all those watermelons he brought north) to get the necessary funds.
Berniece flatly refuses to sell the piano. The piano has a hard history, in that it was originally acquired by Sutter’s family in a swap for two of their slaves, a trade that broke up the Charles family; that’s only one of the reasons taking it from Sutter’s house never felt like a crime.
And thanks to one relative who was a master woodworker, the piano case is intricately carved with the faces of ancestors. The piano, to Berniece, is freighted with meaning, a symbol of past strife, of perseverance, and a family heirloom without compare. It is proof of the family’s survival through slavery and Reconstruction; to Boy Willie, it's a ticket to the future, to land ownership and self-sufficiency as a farmer. Owning land, especially Sutter’s land, will cut his family’s ties to slavery.
Their dispute over the piano is heightened by an apparition — Sutter’s ghost seems to be in the house where Berniece and Doaker live. It will take everything they’ve got to grapple with that ghost and confront their past.
There’s a lot going on in The Piano Lesson — one family’s story, a broader slice of history, a philosophical debate about legacy, a look at the ongoing trauma of slavery. Besides the August Wilson source material, what the director has on his side here are stellar performances from all involved, and a cast that includes Stephan James, Corey Hawkins, Michael Potts and Erykah Badu . Cinematographer Mike Gioulakis ensures the film is visually mesmerizing.
There’s a scene in which the men sing a prison work song together, for example, that alone may be worth the price of admission.
The Piano Lesson was produced by Denzel Washington, pretty much in every sense of the word. It’s the third time he’s been involved with the work of playwright August Wilson, having also produced Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020) and directed Fences (2016).
The Piano Lesson: Directed by Malcolm Washington, written by Virginl Williams, Malcolm Washington and August Wilson. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Danielle Deadwyler, Ray Fisher.
In theatres in Ontario, BC, Alberta and Quebec on Friday, November 8. On Netflix beginning November 22.