Review: Tuner — Crooked Marquee

Urgency pervades Daniel Roher’s two most recent documentaries, but it’s also the throughline to Tuner, his narrative debut. The director’s Academy-Award-winning doc Navalny was a timely, real-world thriller about the man who was the opposition leader in Putin’s Russia, and Blink followed a family intent on making memories around the world before three of their four children go blind. The stakes are smaller—and fictional—in Tuner, but the energy and gravity remain in this engaging thriller about an unlikely safe cracker that’s driven as much by its characters and a sense of humor as it is by its action.

Niki White (Leo Woodall) is an apprentice piano tuner in New York City, where he is ostensibly studying under the tutelage of Harry Horowitz (a warm, wily Dustin Hoffman). However, with perfect pitch, ultrasensitive hearing from hyperacusis (described as an “allergy to loud noises”), and a virtuoso’s talent on the instrument that he now refuses to play, Niki mostly just listens to Harry’s stories. Niki soon learns that he isn’t just gifted at tuning pianos. His exceptional hearing also makes him good at safe cracking, a skill he uses to help a forgetful Harry and his longsuffering wife, Marla (Tovah Feldshuh), open their safe when Harry can’t remember the combination.

Niki is a good guy who doesn’t intend to use his ability for ill, but his gift is discovered by Uri (Lior Raz) when they’re working at the same mansion. Uri works in security and exploits his knowledge of his high-end clients’ absences to steal small things that he thinks they won’t miss, and he also exploits Niki’s need for fast cash when Niki needs to help a friend in a financial bind. Niki gets in over his head (as always happens), but Uri is reluctant to let him and his skills get away.

There’s also a girl (there’s always a girl). In his work as a piano tuner, Niki meets composition student Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), and she is immediately intrigued by his Rainman-like ability to know exactly what notes she’s playing. Love blooms between the two as Niki tries to balance romance, his day job, and his secret side gig as each part of his life threatens to crash into each other.

With a score that moves from jazz to electronica, Tuner hums with the buzziness of New York City. As a cultural hub, it’s at once the perfect setting for a film about a piano tuner where there are ample instruments across the boroughs and beyond that need tuning (and enough rich people to support its very specific type of thieves) and a terrible one for a movie about a guy with hyperacusis. Even with earplugs and noise-cancelling headphones, how can Niki survive a moment in a city filled with shrieking alarms, blaring car horns, and screeching train brakes? My screening of Tuner was outdoors, and even though we were all given headphones so we could hear every finely tuned bit of the film’s sonic atmosphere, the noises of New York still crept in.

Yet its sound is what sets Tuner apart. Oscar-winning sound designer Johnnie Burn (The Zone of Interest) lets us live in Niki’s ears, hearing both the smallest sound from a lock’s tumblers to the eardrum-shattering honk of an air horn. It immerses you in the film, deeply embedding you in Niki’s singular experience.

While we’ve seen movies featuring safecrackers before, Tuner differentiates its story about a reluctant criminal by setting it in the world of piano tuners. Director Roher and his co-writer Robert Ramsey bring remarkable specificity to their script, offering small details about a world that feels new, even in a familiar setting. While Tuner marks his first narrative feature, it displays real confidence and style. It’s shot through both tiny peepholes and lenses that capture the expansive, geometric framing of concert halls. Its kinetic editing makes the movie fly by, both establishing a fizzy pace and distinguishing it from films that use the process without any creative verve. Editor Greg O’Bryant uses cuts for comic and dramatic effect, demonstrating a real talent for timing.

With its lively direction and editing, Tuner is mesmerizing in its rhythms and textures. It’s marvelously witty and entertaining as it ping-pongs from a charming comedy to a breathless thriller to a sweet romance to a character-driven drama. There’s something for everyone here, while it still remains marvelously specific.