Tuner
Niki (Leo Woodall, "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy") was once a piano prodigy, but his hyper sensitive hearing, so extreme he needs to wear hi-fi earplugs and noise-canceling headphones, denied his ability to nurture his talent. Now he works for his late father's friend, Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman), a hard of hearing piano tuner who accompanies his protege on his rounds as the genial face of the business, chatting with Niki as the younger man works. Harry will also upend Niki's life when he turns matchmaker with Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu, "Bottoms," "No Exit"), a stressed composition student whose view of Niki keeps evolving, and when he ends up hospitalized with over $35K in medical debt, Niki attempts to rectify the situation by getting involved with some very shady characters in "Tuner."
Laura's Review: B
Cowriter (with "Intolerable Cruelty's" Robert Ramsey)/director Daniel Roher ("Navalny," "The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist") leans heavily into contrivance to connect his screenplay's dots, but elicits such complex and likable performances from his ensemble in his first foray into narrative feature filmmaking that he makes it all work, contrasting one young man grappling with losing his ability to express his talent with a young woman fighting to showcase hers. As one might expect, audio is a crucial element of this film and sound designer Johnnie Burn's ("The Zone of Interest") work, heightening, muffling and isolating various sounds, is best experienced in a Dolby Theater.
We are introduced to Harry and Niki like an odd couple comedy duo arriving at various tony NYC apartments where Harry does his schtick entertaining clients as Niki works. They are frequently asked if they can perform such tasks as fixing a leaky toilet or troublesome Wifi, rich people viewing tradesmen interchangeably. The bond between the two separated by about sixty years is strongly familial, Niki enjoying dinner later with Harry and his wife Marla (Tovah Feldshuh, "Armageddon Time"), who grills Niki on Harry's diet during the day as she snatches the salt away from her husband. Marla also asks why Harry isn't wearing his hearing aids and he sheepishly admits that he absent mindedly locked them in their safe which he recently changed the combination for, now forgotten. Niki agrees to take it home and try and open it and, of course, cracks it with his sensitive hearing and you just know this newly learned talent will immediately come in handy elsewhere.
When Ruthie, the student Niki had to kick out of her booked time in a main auditorium in order to tune its piano, walks into the diner he and Harry are eating at and the two acknowledge each other, Harry's antennae perk right up and he embarrasses both by insisting Niki carry Ruthie's books to class, which they awkwardly give in to, but when Niki returns it's to find Harry being loaded into an ambulance and when he gets to the hospital he finds a distraught Marla who tells him Harry 'protested' some Medicare issue by stopping his payments, resulting in huge medical debt this hospitalization is sure to multiply.
Out on his own the next day, Niki once again faces the disrespect of the wealthy when he arrives to tune a piano amidst all kinds of construction noise and is asked to return at 8 p.m. He reluctantly agrees, but once he's set to work, he's interrupted by a grinding coming from upstairs. He traces it to Uri (Lior Raz), Yoni (Gil Cohen) and Benny (Nissan Sakira) drilling into a safe. Now, while you or I would immediately figure out that the estate was being robbed, Niki buys Uri's explanation that he heads a security firm and they have been tasked with moving the safe. In order to restore the quiet he needs to work, Niki offers to open it, impressing Uri with his speed and skill. Uri gives him his card, offering him employment with impressive payouts. Niki sees a solution to Harry and Marla's medical debt. We see trouble ahead.
While Marla is becoming worried about just how their debt has been paid off, Ruthie is becoming more involved with the piano tuner she'd initially dismissed, especially after he fixes her piano, her only remaining memento of her grandmother, after it's damaged by a bad leak from an upstairs apartment. She becomes alarmed just like Marla, though, when he remembers her having lost her grandmother's pearl bracelet watch and gifts her one that just happens to be an inscribed Rolex, one it is easy to guess will be identified later at a crucial moment. Meanwhile Niki's attempt to disengage from Uri's team after a job goes badly south brings escalating levels of pain, including a threatening Uri showing up at Harry's funeral reception and Uri arming himself with an air horn to get Niki to do his bidding. When Ruthie looks for support, stressed about her performance for maestro Marius Maissner (Jean Reno, "Léon: The Professional"), Niki lashes out, proclaiming himself a better piano player than she will ever be. Everything comes to a crescendo when Ruthie performs her composition.
Woodall's been building a nice resume and this role really gives him a chance to shine, a good guy with good intentions caught up in a bad scheme. His anguish combined with Burn's sound really make us feel the pain of a jackhammer or plane flying overhead, his concentration helping us to pinpoint the moment a safe's fence drops into the gate that allows it to open, his love and concern apparent whenever he is with Harry or Marla. He also impresses in a scene where Rose Liu's Ruthie challenges him to identify notes, rattling off long sequences as if from true expertise. Rose Liu is no manic pixie dream girl, instead a complex character who isn't even likable initially, but one we come to care for as her mind opens about the piano tuner. Hoffman drops in to charm and provide comic relief while Feldshuh provides a maternal figure for Niki while also making him her ally in caring for her husband. Raz is perfection as the charming criminal who turns lethal, Cohen and Sakira his more affable cohorts.
The production convincingly substitutes Toronto for New York City, production designer Peter Cosco defining everything from the density of Manhattan to Upper East Side apartments and semi-detached houses in Queens. Director of Photography Lowell Meyer and editor Greg O'Bryant believably orchestrate the actors' piano playing moves, Executive Music Producer Marius de Vries composing the pieces played. Will Bates’ piano-based score and music supervisor Steve Gizicki's soundtrack selections, favoring standards like 'Sinnerman' and 'Almost Like Being in Love,' complete the film's aural landscape.
Robin's Review: B
Hearing-impaired Niki White (Leo Woodall) is apprentice/partner in the piano-tuning business with his late father's best friend, Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman). When Harry forgets the combination to his safe, the younger man learns, because of his ultrasensitive hearing, that he has a knack for cracking in "Tuner."
As I watched documentary filmmaker turned first feature director Daniel Roher, I could not help but compare it to two earlier heist films – Michel Mann's "Thief (!981)" and "Baby Driver (2017)" by Edgar Wright. Of the t here, "Thief" is the best.
That said, "Tuner" is a likable crime story/romance that builds itself upon the instant transformation of Niki from hearing-impaired piano tuner to master safecracker in what amounts to a heartbeat in time and effort. The reason for his turn to crime is because of his love for elderly Harry and his wife, Maria (Tovah Feldshuh). His mentor has a heart attack and lands in the hospital – with no insurance and no savings.
Fortunately (or not) for Niki, he takes a job at a mansion to tune an expensive piano and is left alone. He hears strange noises and investigates. What he finds are three Israelis. Uri (Lior Raz), Benny (Nissan Sakira) and Yori (Gil Cohen), trying to break into a safe. They explain that they were "hired" by the owner who "forgot" the combination. Niki is convinced to help them and, before they know it, the box is opened.
Niki gets a good payoff, which he immediately uses to pay Harry's huge hospital bills. Then, he takes another job, then another. As they say, "once you are in, you cannot get out" – much like James Caan in "Thief," but with a lot less violence. The story follows Niki and his attempts to "get out" of the crime business.
But, where would we be if we have a handsome, kind and intelligent young man with a hearing problem and no romance? That question is neatly answered with the introduction of pretty pianist and budding young composer, Ruthie (Hava na Rose Liu). After an embarrassing introduction by Harry, Niki falls for her head over heels. It is not a necessary side story but a nice one.
Of course, with a movie about hypersensitive hearing and listening to the tumblers click, sound is very important and front and center (as is very-close-up photography of said tumblers). You know where the story is going but the characters are very likable and the music is good, too.
Black Bear releases "Tuner" in NY on 5/22/26, wide on 5/29/26.
