'The Piano Lesson' review: Denzel Washington and his sons adapt a classic family drama, with respect

Even with scenes that take us into sunflower fields and down winding roads, to the front yard of a plantation and into the night where fireworks pop in the sky, there are only a handful of moments when “The Piano Lesson” doesn’t feel like exactly what it is: a respectful adaptation of a profound stage work, with a team of gifted artists delivering robust performances that ring through the rafters.

At times, the mannered feeling of certain scenes and the play-to-the-balcony techniques of some of the actors come across as almost too large for the screen, but this is still an important and timely historical drama reminding us of how the resiliency and strength of family can endure against the worst of humanity.

It’s fitting that two generations of Washingtons have adapted August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, given “The Piano Lesson” is a multigenerational story set primarily in the Pittsburgh of 1936 but has flashbacks to the summer of 1911 and to the middle of the 19th century. Denzel Washington is producer, with son Malcolm Washington directing and son John David Washington reprising the role of Boy Willie he played in the Broadway revival of the play in 2022. The stellar cast includes Danielle Deadwyler, Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Fisher, Erykah Badu, Michael Potts and Corey Hawkins. (Fisher, Potts and Jackson also starred in the Broadway revival.)

In Malcolm Washington’s directorial debut, he shows a fine touch for weaving the often ominous and tragic flashback sequences with the thunderous, conflict-filled family interactions taking place within the walls of a home in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, against the backdrop of the Great Depression. “The Piano Lesson” combines grounded and authentic dramatic scenes with episodes containing surreal and supernatural elements, at times becoming a fever dream with some ambitious swings involving ghosts and curses. Through it all, the actors deliver memorably strong work, and the words of Wilson (via the adaptation by Malcolm Washington and Virgil Williams) ring loud and true.

In 1936, the ebullient Boy Willie (John David Washington) journeys from the South to Pittsburgh, accompanied by his sweet-natured friend Lymon (Ray Fisher) and hauling a flatbed truck filled with watermelons. Boy Willie swoops into the house where his uncle Doaker Charles (Samuel L. Jackson), his widowed sister Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) and Berniece’s 11-year-old daughter Maretha (Skylar Aleece Smith) live, and he announces himself as a man with a plan.

As fate (and perhaps a spirit known as “Yellow Dog”) would have it, a man named Sutter, a descendant of the family that once enslaved Boy Willie’s ancestors, has recently died from a fall into a well. Now Sutter’s land is up for sale, and Boy Willie intends to purchase it through a multipronged plan that entails hawking those aforementioned watermelons and selling the piano that occupies a place of honor (laced with fear) in the living room of that Pittsburgh house.

Problem is, Berniece and Boy Willie have an equal stake in that 137-year-old piano, which is equal parts family heirloom and family curse, and Berniece has zero intentions of parting with it. Generations ago, the recently deceased Sutter’s grandfather traded Doaker’s grandmother and his father for a piano to give to his wife as a birthday present. Doaker’s grandfather carved the images of Charles family members into the wood panels of the piano.

Decades later, in 1911, Doaker and his brother Wining Boy (Michael Potts) and Boy Willie’s father (Stephan James) stole the piano in the belief it would sever any lingering and horrific symbolic ties between the Charles and Sutter families. (This makes for one of the most impressively staged and cinematic sequences in the entire film.) Berniece believes it would be a terrible mistake to let go of that piano, while Boy Willie is determined to sell it, convinced it would enable him to exact the ultimate payback by purchasing a swath of Sutter-owned land.

There are a lot of entanglements involving similarly named characters to keep track of, but thanks to a clarifying history lesson provided by Jackson’s Doaker in a pivotal monologue, and the cast creating strong and unique characters, it’s relatively easy to maintain a grasp on events, both in the “present” and the past. Amid all the heavy drama and the supernatural-tinged scenes involving a ghost, there’s room for precise and lovely smaller moments, as when Lymon gifts Berniece with a small bottle of French perfume, which leads to ... maybe something more.

John David Washington gives one of the most distinctive performances of his career as the hustling but well-intentioned Boy Willie, while Danielle Deadwyler, who did award-worthy work in 2022’s “Till,” further burnishes her bona fides as a great actor. “The Piano Lesson” is occasionally overwrought, yet proves to be a worthy adaptation of a classic play.