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The Piano Lesson Movie Review

The Piano Lesson is a 2024 drama film directed by Malcolm Washington and starring John David Washington. This is an uneven, but mostly very effective and moving family drama.

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“I been with strangers all day and they treated me like family.

I come in here to family and you treat me like a stranger“

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The Charles family grapples with family legacy and difficult decisions as they determine the fate of their heirloom piano, exploring deeper themes along the way. This is the third of the recent adaptations of August Wilson’s plays. How does it rank with others? It is clearly inferior to the phenomenal ‘Fences’, but also stronger overall than ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’. It’s an underrated movie that deserves more attention for its stellar acting and some interesting cinematic choices.

Let’s get the negatives out of the way first. This movie was produced by Denzel Washington. It stars John David Washington. And it’s directed by Michael Washington in his feature debut. Nepotism be damned! It’s rare to find such a clear case of nepotism in Hollywood, but here it was way too obvious and excessive. It also negatively impacted the overall movie to a degree.

I am talking more about John David than Michael Washington. Yes, Michael’s directing is obviously flawed as this is his debut, so it’s to be expected. But some of his choices I did quite like. The opening was quite cinematic and the ending moved into the horror territory, which made the film feel more modern. It didn’t totally work, but it was an interesting decision for sure. The ghost apparition scene was suitably eerie too. The movie is very well made, it flows well and it’s consistently engaging.

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But John David Washington’s acting wasn’t my cup of tea here. The character that he plays is louder than life and quite annoying, similar to the protagonist of ‘Fences’ that was played by his father. But his performance was a bit too over-the-top, loud and theatrical. It fitted the character, but undoubtedly the other performers towered above him, which was an issue when he was the center throughout. I continue to have mixed feelings about this actor as I quite liked him in some projects, but really did not care for him in others.

But the other actors in this strong cast really delivered. Samuel L. Jackson was very good and memorable as Doaker and I quite liked Ray Fisher and Corey Hawkins too. The standout is obviously Danielle Deadwyler. She will sadly get snubbed by the Academy once again, but she was so terrific in this film that she stole the show from everybody else. A couple of her scenes were so emotionally intense and powerful that the rest of the characters and actors could never compete.

The Piano Lesson is all about grappling with your past both literally and figuratively. It is also about the troubled past of black people in America and how broken their families were and how problematic and even non-existent their family histories were. It’s a powerfully emotional family drama that is at its best when it’s focusing on the exploration of its themes through these complicated discussions between its very different, complex characters. The movie paints its colorful characters in different shades while never feeling too much like a stage play, which I certainly appreciated.

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