A talented piano tuner who suffers from hyperacusis discovers an unexpected aptitude for cracking safes, turning his life upside down.

The first narrative fiction film from the Canadian Oscar winning documentary maker, Daniel Roher, is a crime thriller about an apprentice piano tuner who finds himself caught up in the antics of a gang of Israeli thieves. It stars Leo Woodall in the central role of Niki White, who has became a piano tuner after his own musical career stalled after he developed hyperacusis, which requires him to wear ear protection at all times due to his sensitivity to loud noises. This sensitivity makes him particularly adept at tuning pianos, which he does as an apprentice for his late father’s friend Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman), and as it turns out, equally as adept at cracking safes.

‘Tuner’ kicks off with three significant events. Harry is hospitalized, Niki meets a talented student pianist called Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), and he encounters Uri (Lior Raz), an Israeli security consultant who may not be all about providing security. As Harry starts to develop a romantic relationship with Ruthie, he finds himself drawn more into Uri’s orbit where his ability to crack safes is a perfect attribute for a group of thieves, with these stories naturally starting to converge on each other and driving the conflict in the narrative.

This is a very well written, sharply plotted thriller that succeeds in being both tense and exciting, but also light and charming, particularly when Dustin Hoffman is on screen. Hoffman doesn’t feature much but every scene with him sparkles, and Woodall makes for a solid leading man opposite him and is ably supported by Rose Liu and Lior Raz (who is great in the TV series ‘Fauda’). I liked that the film is more character than plot driven and it felt like a throwback in some respects to the kind of films you’d see regularly in the 90s for example, where the audience is treated with intelligence and the focus isn’t on using action scenes solely to drive the plot forward.

‘Tuner’ is a film where sound plays a major part and Roher brought on Johnnie Burn (who was a crucial part of ‘The Zone of Interest’ – another film that used sound to great effect) to create the sound design which puts you right into Niki’s headspace and it is really effectively done. I thought ‘Tuner’ was a smartly constructed thriller that effortlessly straddles different genres, and I really enjoyed it.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Daniel Roher

Starring: Leo Woodall, Havana Rose Liu, Lior Raz, Tovah Feldshuh, Jean Reno and Dustin Hoffman

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt33296751/