If nothing else, Daniel Roher's Tuner gets credit for originality. Co-written by Robert Ramsey, the Oscar-winning director (the absolutely must-see documentary Navalny), Roher turns to narrative film for this story of a New York City piano tuner who's especially good at his job because of his overly sensitive hearing. Leo Woodall (Nuremberg; Brigid Jones: Mad About the Boy) stars as Niki, the piano tuner in question; he works with longtime business partner, father figure and family friend Harry (Dustin Hoffman), who knows him perhaps better than he knows himself. Niki has a sweet relationship with Harry and his wife, Marla (Tovah Feldshuh), who dote on him and worry about him and want the best for him the way any parents or grandparents would. Together, Harry and Niki visit grand homes and music halls and every type of room where a piano may be housed to keep these delicate beauties in working order.
Niki's sensitivity isn't strictly a gift, however; he's tortured by otherwise everyday city sounds like dogs barking and ambulance sirens, and his noise-canceling headphones are always at the ready. After we've met Niki and Harry and learned a bit about their routine, the film's central plot—or should I say plots?—kicks in, and here is where the trouble starts. Soon, the film is unfolding a bit like a discordant chord where all the different notes should work together but something sounds...off.
After a job one afternoon, Harry and Niki are eating lunch in a diner when they cross paths with Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), who turns out to be a music student and a perfect love interest for the otherwise introverted, socially awkward Niki. Elsewhere, the piano tuner with the golden ear stumbles upon a heist in broad daylight: a gang of thieves is trying to crack a safe in his client's home, using loud and disruptive power tools, while Niki is trying to complete a job. Turns out, his highly engaged sense of hearing can help with this type of work, too, as he can hear the safe's mechanisms unlatching and opening in a way no one else, and no tool, possibly can.
And here is where Roher's Tuner becomes two movies in one, neither of them quite...forgive me...in tune with the other. On the one hand, Tuner is a sweet romcom, following Niki and Ruthie's courtship as he learns to be vulnerable and share who he really is with her while she prepares for her big graduation recital. The moments they bond and let their respective guards down are sweet to witness, and both actors bring a gentleness to their performances that only serve to make their connection that much more precious. But there are two sides to the Niki coin, and the other is occupied with his life of crime as he's been conscripted to use his "talents" by the safe breakers to help him with their biggest jobs. If not happy to help, he's at least a willing participant as his cut from each job is going towards the kinds of well-meaning debts that make us root for a protagonist making the wrong choices.
The two plot lines are, I'm sure, supposed to intertwine in ways that bring depth and sympathy to our players; as we learn more about Niki's personal life and what motivates him to make these less-than-reputable decisions, we're supposed to appreciate the heist moments in a new light or at least not completely write Niki off as he moves deeper into this underworld. Unfortunately, Roher and team find it hard to shift the energy up from the sweeter moments to create a crime film with any kind of real stakes; instead, the motley crew implementing them play them more like hijinks than heists. Especially in the film's last third when the plot has to come to a head and we have to really, truly believe in Niki and his best intentions, the film just can't quite stick the landing.
Despite the film's tonal inconsistency, it remains an entertaining watch; Woodall is quite engaging as a man struggling with something no one else can really understand. Dustin Hoffman's presence happily reminds us of that elder-statesman-of-the-screen's star quality, his charm and paternal nature inviting us to settle in and see where this adventure goes. Together, they create a semblance of a well-lived-in relationship where they care about each other as much as they annoy each other. It's a charming dynamic and carries the film through its weaker moments.
I don't know what's ahead for Roher, but it's not every day that an Oscar-winning documentarian shifts to narrative work; to his credit, he navigates the switch well as Tuner doesn't have the slightest whiff of a staid documentary aesthetic. Instead, and if you've seen Navalny you know, Roher is a gifted storyteller no matter the genre or format and, script shortcomings aside, Tuner is a watchable and original diversion.
Tuner is now in theaters.
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