This adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winning play is a family affair. Writer/Director Malcolm and lead actor John David Washington, along with a number of members of the Washington family are in the film which is spellbinding and spiritual. They are following in father, Denzel Washington’s film steps to bring all 10 of Wilson’s Pittsburgh cycle plays to the big or little screen. This is the third project after Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Co-writer, Virgil Williams, (Mudbound) was happy to be taken in as part of the Washington’s clan for this project.
Watch our Red Carpet interview with Director Malcolm Washington, John David Washington and co-writer Virgil Williams talking about what they were going for in this adaptation of the play Opening Night at The 60th Chicago International Film Festival.
Boy Willie (John David) and Berniece (Daniel Deadwyler) are going head-to-head over the family piano. The film is theatrical, but with the added dramatic scenes at the beginning and the end. Opening scenes show how it was actually stolen from a White family many years prior with their Uncle Doaker (Samuel L. Jackson) narrating the story of how it ended up in their Pittsburgh home.
It was then adorned with carvings of family members who were slaves to make this beautiful piece an historical heirloom. Berniece thinks it’s haunted. Boy Willie is hellbent on selling the piano along with a truck load of watermelons he and friend Lymon (Ray Fisher) brought so he can buy land where his family worked as slaves in Mississippi. The play is set in 1936 during the Great Depression.
Berniece will have none of it. She sees the piano as the spiritual symbol of her ancestors. Berniece has not played the piano since the siblings’ mother Mama Ola died. (Olivia Washington plays the young Mama Ola in the film.) Instead, the instrument sits in her living room and serves as a reminder of what her ancestors endured as slaves.The piano becomes a character itself in the film. Director Malcolm shows those impactful images carved and buffed into the piano. So beautiful, they will grab your attention.
Deadwyler delivers another strong award-worthy performance. Some feel she was snubbed for the committed role she played as the mother in Till. In our interview at the Chicago International Film Festival, John David called her a “force of nature,” so determined delivering her passionate oratory with fiery eyes as Berniece. She digs her heels in, vowing she’ll never let that piano out of her sight; consumed with its spirituality, and with taking care of her daughter.
Whenever their arguments heat up, Doaker (Samuel L. Jackson) is the calming influence, keeping tempers down. Jackson actually played Boy Willie in the 1987 play on Broadway. Here, he is the voice of reason, trying to keep everybody calm while the arguments rage on about who owns the piano.
Director Malcolm Washington with co-writer Williams had the cast go through several rehearsals, watching carefully to decide how to use the camera to catch the best angles following each character. The script, Williams admitted, is loaded with so much dialogue and heightened emotion.
There are moments of humor and tenderness, as well as rage and supernatural terror. Malcolm Washington manages to make this cinematic rather than a stage experience, zeroing in on each character, including the piano. Deadwyler is a commanding force and John David Washington is a forceful antagonist in a film honoring family, crafted by film family royalty.
Netflix 2 hours 5 minutes PG-13
In Theaters now. Streaming on Netflix November 22nd
