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‘The Piano Lesson’ Review: Denzel Washington Produces And His Family Brings New Life To August Wilson’s Pulitzer-Winning Stage Classic – Telluride Film Festival
A review of The Piano Lesson with Denzel Washington producing, son Malcolm directing and son John David co-starring with Samuel L. Jackson.
Finding success with his 2016 film version of Fences following its Tony-winning Broadway revival and bringing an Oscar to Viola Davis as well as Denzel’s 10th nomination, and then 2020’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, this seems like a natural move as well as a work that perhaps lends itself better than others in Wilson’s canon to a cinematic adaptation. Boy Willie (the role, by the way, that Jackson originated in the Yale Rep production 37 years ago) sees this piano as his ticket to being able to buy the land his family had long worked, but now could put him in the position of being an owner. John David Washington has one of his best turns, impressively embodying Boy Willie while acting opposite Jackson, the man who created him on stage all those years ago and now takes on another much older character in the story, still knowing just the right beats to play in Wilson’s sandbox of knockout dialogue.
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