Daniel Roher has thus far had a critically successful career as a documentarian, casting a sympathetic gaze on impactful figures as diverse as Robbie Robertson and Alexei Navalny. With “Tuner,” his first foray into narrative filmmaking, Roher uses his perceptive eye to prove that a formulaic story can be elevated when the formula is executed to perfection with attention to character.
Niki White (Leo Woodall) and Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman) are piano tuners spending their days traveling to expensive homes to apply their specialized craft at keeping neglected status symbols up to date on their yearly maintenance. Once a piano prodigy, Niki suffers from a hearing condition called hyperacusis – he is essentially allergic to loud noises. With Harry as his father figure, he has found a way to remain connected to the world of music as best he can.
One day, Harry leaves his own hearing aids in his personal safe and forgets the combination. Determined to help out his friend, Niki takes the safe home and finds out that his pitch perfect hearing works just as well for safecracking as it did for the piano. When Harry ends up in the hospital after a heart attack, faced with overwhelming medical debt, Niki decides to apply his newfound skill to safecracking work for a team of security experts with a side hustle in stealing from their clients.
With its music-based heist story and hearing-impaired protagonist, “Tuner” could easily be compared with Edgar Wright’s “Baby Driver.” But where the latter movie is self-consciously stylized and comical, the former is mature and compassionate. There are no criminal masterminds or cartoon villains here, only a humble collection of blue-collar strivers trying to make the best of their circumstances.
Woodall leads the cast with a subdued, sensitive performance gamely met by a moving Hoffman as his mentor. Even before Niki’s tragic backstory is revealed, we are aligned with our heroes through a simple montage of them going about their mundane workdays. By watching them so obviously care for one another, we can’t help ourselves but care for them.
Roles that would be more one-note in a worse movie, such as the love interest or the criminal accomplices, are instead shaded with their own wants, their own relationships outside of this one story. Each character is complex, rough around the edges in ways that add texture to the otherwise routine plot.
While more surprises would have been welcome throughout, “Tuner” is a finely tuned heist thriller, delivering all of the requisite story beats without losing sight of the humanity at its core, all the way through to its pitch-perfect ending that lands as triumphant but melancholy.
A version of this review was posted at Curt On The Movies.
“Tuner” Rated R for language throughout, some violence, drug use and brief nudity. Running Time: 1 hour and 49 minutes. Directed by Daniel Roher. Written by Daniel Roher and Robert Ramsey. Starring Leo Woodall, Havana Rose Liu, Lior Raz, Tovah Feldshuh, Jean Reno and Dustin Hoffman. Genres: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller.
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