Tuner (Sundance) Review: Leo Woodall has star quality in this quirky thriller

PLOT: A piano tuner (Leo Woodall) with a rare hearing condition finds himself surprisingly adept at cracking safes, leading to a new, profitable (but dangerous) sideline.

REVIEW: One of the things I really enjoy about Sundance (and TIFF, which is where I first saw and reviewed this) is that you can often walk into movies you know nothing about and be totally surprised by how things unfold over their running time. When Tuner started, it seemed like a quirky drama, very much a surrogate father-son story about a young tuner (played by Leo Woodall) who pals around with a much older veteran (Dustin Hoffman) who treats him like family. Woodall’s character, Niki, has a rare condition where his ears are oversensitive to the point of being debilitated by loud noises. He has to constantly wear earplugs, and the condition ruined his career as a piano virtuoso. Yet, his sensitive hearing and perfect pitch made him a great tuner—and, as it turns out, a safecracker when he runs afoul of some Israeli gangsters who set him up to work. He’s also just starting a tentative romance with a music student (Havana Rose Liu).

Pretty early on, however, Tuner becomes much more of a crime movie when Hoffman’s Harry falls ill, and his wife (Tovah Feldshuh) can’t keep up with the bills. This sparks Niki to take on riskier jobs so he can help keep the kindly old couple afloat. While it sounds a lot like Baby Driver, Tuner is a lot less stylized, coming instead from documentarian Daniel Roher, who has a flair for atmosphere.

Woodall, who made a big impression in The White Lotus season two, definitely seems like a star on the rise. I got young Mickey Rourke vibes from him, with Niki brooding, tough, but also sweet-natured, especially in how he treats Hoffman and Feldshuh’s characters. Hoffman, who’s been offscreen a lot in recent years, has a ball sinking his teeth into the eccentric old tuner, who lectures his young ward about the job but also finds his mental faculties slipping away. Feldshuh, likewise, is warm as his wife, while Havana Rose Liu is charming as Niki’s love interest.

The movie also has some real menace courtesy of Israeli actor Lior Raz, who plays Uri, the head of a low-rent crew who sees Niki as his ticket to big bucks. Initially coming off as fatherly, he becomes more of a threat as the movie goes on. Even if it all sounds quite predictable, it never quite goes down the way you think. In fact, I was surprised by how violent the last act gets, as it takes a sharp but somewhat realistic turn that caught much of the audience off guard. It may start out a bit like Baby Driver, but after a while it starts feeling more like James Toback’s Fingers. It feels like Roher wanted his crime story to have real stakes and consequences for all involved, and he deserves credit for never turning Woodall’s likeable Niki into too much of a crime-movie tough guy—he’s supposed to be an overwhelmed kid, and that’s how he comes off.

Tuner was certainly a nice surprise: a solidly crafted, well-acted thriller that I enjoyed. It’s definitely worth keeping an eye out for when Black Bear puts this movie out in theaters in May.

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