Review of The Piano Lesson, directed by Malcolm Washington

For three years, I worked as a film critic at an online outlet. I quit back in April 2024 to do my own thing, as I’m more passionate about international and BIPOC cinema, which online outlets tend to see as not profitable. So if you’re into movie, television, book, and travel reviews, this is the blog for you!

But when I was working as a critic, I was at the New York Film Festival and covered Till when it came out. I had the opportunity to interview Danielle Deadwyler, but I said no; I instead interviewed Whoopi Goldberg and the director Chinonye Chukwu. And man, after seeing the movie, I regretted I didn’t interview her.

I’ve also worked in theatre for a bit, so I’m very familiar with August Wilson’s work. When I first heard about The Piano Lesson being adapted, I knew I was interested, but what sold me was the fact Deadwyler and Corey Hawkins were in it.

I’m such a huge fan of Corey Hawkins; I saw him front row in the Broadway play Topdog/Underdog and he hands down had one of the best acting performances I’ve ever seen live.

Anyways, at the time of typing this, I watched The Piano Lesson the day it came out on Netflix. I’d been waiting eagerly for this day, so I made my breakfast, sat down in front of the television, and watched the movie in one go.

Here’s my review! I don’t want to ramble too much in the introduction. We have a lot of ground to cover.

A Black family is haunted by a piano stolen from their ancestors’ master.

The Piano Lesson follows the plot of the original play, so I don’t want to go too in-depth with this review. The movie takes place in 1936, in Pittsburgh, and often weaves between the past and present. There are some succulent flashbacks scattered throughout the film to show how the past haunts the present.

This is technically considered a horror movie because of how the past emerges (i.e. the corpse of a slaveowner literally appearing in front of people in the family). The family in this movie is the Charles family, and they are grappling with the impact of a single object in their home: a piano that used to belong to the slave family that owned them.

The piano is adorned with the carvings of patriarch at the time; it had been traded for his wife and son, but when Sutter, the guy who owned them, gave it to his wife, she loved it but missed the wife and son. She wanted to trade them back for the piano, but that deal never went through.

In 1911, during the Fourth of July, a group of Black men broke into Sutter’s home and stole it. In a way, they were literally reclaiming their own history, but with that act comes violence, and we see that when Boy Willie rides into town with his watermelon truck in the present day and says Sutter fell into a well. It’s presumed he was pushed by Berniece’s brother.

Now it sits in the home of the current Charles family. Berniece, the current matriarch, sees it as something that haunts them. Her husband died, and she shows some anger at how he left her alone in bed for seventeen years (we can kind of assume he died through similar means to her father). Her father, and two of the men who stole the piano, were burned alive for stealing it by a white mob.

She used to play the piano, but now sees it as something that awakens the spirits of the past when she plays. Her resentment towards the piano is more obvious during a monologue about how these are just cycles they can’t break free of, and the piano is the source of all of this.

This leads to the question of what they’ll do with the piano. The movie is very much a story about trauma, and while they’re talking about the piano and what they should do with it, they’re actually also dealing with the pain that came with slavery and the intergenerational trauma the piano directly represents.

Overall Thoughts

Now, I’m not entirely convinced this is better than the stage version. It feels a little too theatrical in some of the performances, which makes sense as most of the actors were cast from the Broadway revival that came onto stages in 2022. One of my regrets was missing that, but we’re basically getting that on-screen.

Deadwyler is clearly the standout in this movie. She was excellent in Till, and she was excellent in this film as well. Her career is so bright and lively; I can’t wait to see what she does in the future. Her Berniece is angry and full of sorrow, but so complex in how she speaks and acts. Her conversations I looked forward to the most.

Jackson is the other biggest player in the movie to me. The others are good, but that’s where it leaned a little to theatrical for me. It felt a little like they couldn’t transition everything properly, even though this is a pretty solid movie.

I did enjoy watching the movie overall. From the doomed 1911 scene, the fireworks a precursor for the tragedy and triumph to come, to the end, there are some really memorable scenes throughout this.

Watch it if you haven’t already. It’s quite the journey into a classic American playwright.

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