For his first narrative after a run of smart, propulsive documentaries, among them 2022’s Oscar-winning Navalny, Daniel Roher delivers a propulsive modern noir that might not be especially smart but has an appealing cleverness and lightness of touch. Written by Roher and Robert Ramsey, Tuner’s hook is in its high-concept story design, which is centered on Nikki (Leo Woodall), a New York piano tuner whose boss, Harry (Dustin Hoffman), is also his best friend, surrogate father figure, and unwitting reason for Nikki’s turn to crime.
Nikki, a onetime piano prodigy with perfect pitch, never pursued a music career because of his hyperacusis, a hearing disorder that makes him hyper-sensitive to noise, forcing him to wear earplugs or headphones most of the time. While Nikki’s condition leaves him vulnerable to threats involving his ears, as the gangsters he eventually falls in with discover, it hasn’t robbed him of the hearing that turns out to be just as useful for cracking safes as it is for tuning pianos.
Nikki spends his days driving the repair van across the Tri-State area to fix pianos in the homes of the rich while Harry, well past retirement, yammers away and naps. Nikki is the exasperatedly uptight but doting son figure, while Harry is all clumsy and cheerful moxie. Their chemistry is largely a credit to Hoffman, whose lightly irascible yet twinkly performance is a delightful reminder of what he can do when truly zeroing in on a character.
Roher finds a smart balance in the early parts of Tuner, spending enough time with Nikki and Harry that they become fully realized characters rather than just cogs for the drama to follow, but not so much that the story is weighed down with backstory. Without any flashbacks or exposition dumps, it’s understood that Harry and his wife Marla (Tovah Feldshuh) are now Nikki’s found family. Their bond is tight enough that when the couple is hit by a massive bill after Harry goes into the hospital, Nikki jumps without hesitation to help.
Accidentally stumbling on three thieves trying to rob a mansion where he happens to be working late on a piano, Nikki helps them crack the safe. His decision is made largely without hesitation. By that point, Roher’s film has seeded in enough scenes of Nikki and Harry’s wealthy clients’ arrogant disregard that it isn’t difficult for the lead thief Uri (Fauda’s Lior Raz) to convince Nikki that snatching a few baubles is no great moral dilemma.
Though Tuner has many elements of a crime story, it seems almost more piqued by what’s usually the throwaway part of any noir: the girlfriend. Nikki falls fast for aspiring concert pianist Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), who seems to match him in wiry, watchful energy and painstaking perfectionism. Both are tight-lipped professionals who prefer to let their work speak for them, giving the vulnerability of their opening up greater impact. The slowly burgeoning romance, which seems to give Nikki and Ruthie permission to drop their respective guard, is tracked with as much drama and care as the increasingly dangerous heists he secretly embarks on.
There’s an almost Soderberghian exactitude to the clockwork way that the story’s character beats and plot elements weave together. But though the script relies on a few too-handy conveniences (including an eye-roller about an item that Nikki steals that directly impacts Ruthie) to make the conclusion click, Roher’s three-dimensional characters ensure that the film’s precisely crafted final moments feel emotionally satisfying rather than mechanical.
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