Malcolm Washington didn’t start his feature filmmaking career from scratch. He married Samuel L. Much of the cast of the recent Broadway revival included Jackson, his brother, John David Washington, Ray Fisher and Michael Potts. Bernice, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it is second nature, it would be hard to go wrong, one can imagine. Jackson’s own history with the play dates back to his original performance in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.

Making a play cinematic is not the easiest thing, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the Charles family’s world beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with “Mudbound” screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson’s text and shows us the past and origins of the intricately engraved piano that is at the center of all the fuss. . It also opens on a large, action-packed set piece in 1911, during which a piano is stolen from the home of a white family. Another highlights Doerker’s monologue in which he explains the thing’s tortured history to the uninitiated, Fisher Lymon and the audience. While it might be nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a brilliant, down-to-earth presence, the good news is that he actually lets the narration shine, too.

Wilson purists will certainly have opinions on these artistic choices; But he allows the film to breathe a bit by providing some respite with a piano playing in the living room. And most of the film remains there, in 1936. Boy Willie and Lymon one morning, uninvited, descend upon the Pittsburgh home of Bernice and her Uncle Docker. It’s a family reunion with an agenda: they’ve driven a truck full of watermelons up north from Mississippi, and Willie, Bernice’s younger brother, wants to sell the watermelons and then the piano. The dusty old device represents a chance for him to let go of the past and begin the future. With the money, he wants to buy the land that his slave ancestors worked on. Bernice has other ideas about the piano, namely maintaining it. It’s a connection to the past, not a recourse. Additionally, it may also be haunted.

Yes, “The Piano Lesson,” in theaters Friday and streaming on Netflix Nov. 22, isn’t just a meditation on family history. It is also a literal ghost story, with creaks, scares and shadows lurking as the piano plays. Deadwyler is charming as Bernice, who bears the brunt of a haunting, walking on eggshells in her life, trying to take care of her young daughter and fending off men who believe That it can be fulfilled only in its favor. Now he has to deal with his somewhat paranoid brother, who Doerker wisely reminds him may, in fact, be an issue, albeit with irritation. Perhaps the Film Academy will make up for the snub of his performance in “Till” with this twist.

Regardless of your familiarity with Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, “The Piano Lesson” is a worthwhile, captivating and moving watch full of a charismatic cast. Talent isn’t always genetic, but a Washington family is working to prove otherwise. And with “Fences,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and now “The Piano Lesson,” they’re making their mark with a bold and ambitious project that’s perhaps long overdue. Only seven more to go.

“The Piano Lesson,” to be released in theaters Friday by Netflix and stream Nov. 22, has been given a PG-13 rating by the Motion Picture Association for “strong language, violent content, some suggestive references and smoking.” Running time: 125 minutes. Three out of four stars.

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