Ever entered a cinema expecting high-octane, white-knuckle action, but you get swept, swooning over a love story? Not me. I was not expecting anything at all before seeing Tuner. But a charming thriller with a lovely romance tucked in is what I got nevertheless.
Daniel Roher directs this capable crime thriller that felt more like a romance instead of a heist. Or you can say that it is a heist film with a romantic twist. Either way, crime and craft combine for a stylish drama in Tuner.
Niki (Leo Woodall) is a piano tuner in New York under the supervision of his mentor Harry (Dustin Hoffman). Theirs is a small business serving mostly affluent clients in Manhattan, who have grand pianos only for display. The funny opening montage firmly establishing the sort-of parental dynamic between Niki and Harry is so lighthearted, you’d think you’re being set up for a rom-com.
Enter Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), a music composition graduate student, whose rehearsal Niki interrupts when a teacher tells Ruthie to pack up to let the tuner adjust the piano. Liu reminds me of a poised Gong Li mixed with some frail Zhang Ziyi. Ruthie and Niki annoy each other. We understand how focused and driven Ruthie is towards her goals through this interaction. We also get validation that Niki is some sort of gifted musical genius Harry has been rambling about. But of course sparks fly. You do not cast a handsome lead and a beautiful lady as singles if sparks won’t fly (I mean you can, I just mean you know where this encounter is heading towards.) We’ve got the romance conflict established.
The next day, Niki is called to tune the grand piano at the mansion of this unknown rich person. Niki tells the woman in charge that he can’t work with the noise from all the ongoing construction, so she tells him to come back at night. Niki accepts after a big tip. That night, as he works on the piano, Niki is disturbed by noise from somewhere in the huge but empty mansion. Wandering about, he discovers the security group opening a safe with a drill.
As far as he was concerned, regardless of what appears to be happening, Niki would rather just finish his tuning job. He opens the safe for the group, and he goes back to tuning. Uri (Lior Raz), head of security, drops a wad of cash and tells Niki to call him if he needs more. Niki understands what has just happened.
Ruthie appears at the cafe where Niki and Harry are having breakfast; introductions are exchanged. Niki is half embarrassed, but the playful Harry is more than encouraging to remind Ruthie that his apprentice is very much eligible. Niki was a child prodigy until a disability stopped him from playing music, Harry tells Ruthie, hence the special earplugs.
In other films, a crucial element of the story such as this would appear as a text at the beginning, to frame the story ahead. Tuner doesn’t even mention Niki’s condition – hyperacusis, which causes severe hypersensitivity to everyday sounds – but the debilitating disorder is dramatised throughout the film. The camera captures it. Editing shows it. Woodall never relents in his movements that he, as Niki, has this condition. It is because of this disorder that Niki is the perfect piano tuner. But it is also due to this that Niki finds himself in Uri’s troublesome circle.
Harry falls terribly ill, but without insurance, he faces a massive hospital bill that would be impossible to pay out at his age. Niki assures Harry’s wife, Marla (Tovah Feldshuh), that he will find a way. He tries to borrow from banks to no avail, leaving him with the last option to take Uri’s offer. With money as motivation, Niki is set up to join Uri’s operations. At first everything works well, predictably. Harry’s hospital bills gradually get paid, Niki’s and Ruthie’s romance gets intimate – until the routine fails. I won’t spoil the ending.
Tuner doesn’t feel like a typical noir cat-burglary heist film. I even hesitate to call it a thriller. Roher is best known as a documentary filmmaker, having recently won the Academy Award for Navalny, so this successful, stylish foray into feature film is a breath of fresh artistic air.
Snappy dialogue from Roher and co-writer Robert Ramsey helped determine the energetic editing. Its crisp cinematography from Lowell Meyer exudes sophisticated shots without feeling overstyled. But it is sound design that is most memorable among Turner’s workmanship. With music by Will Bates and design by Maximillian Behrens, the audience gets the privilege of hearing sonorous musical notes as well as crystal-clear ASMR-type everyday sounds as Niki would hear them. Would this film have benefited from an ATMOS mix, I don’t know. See it in a new Dolby theater, at least. I can’t say the film doesn’t have flaws, particularly plausibility. Some instances require some logical jump. (For example, Niki goes around in his marked van, right? Impossible to miss, as every street these days has CCTV.)
The best part of Tuner is the cast. British actor Leo Woodall dumps his English accent for New York and finally lands leading man status as a musical prodigy cursed to not play music because of a hearing condition and instead works as a piano tuner for rich people who do not play music. Woodall has previously appeared as the love interest in Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, and the German interpreter Sergeant Howard Triest in Nuremberg. He did star as the lead in the cyber-thriller show Prime Target (on AppleTV*). That show had a lot of issues, chief among them is making the lead character Edward (played by Woodall) uncharismatically useless. I struggled to finish that show, and I finished it for the sake of it, not because it was great. So dear Hollywood, Woodall as a lead in a major release film, please.
The rest of the cast is charming. Hoffman’s veteran gravitas just oozes even with the limited screen time; Liu, as mentioned, is just mesmerizing. And who was expecting a trio of criminals to be so charming? Yoni (Gil Cohen) has the vocabulary of an English Major, bubbly Benny (Nissan Sakira) could easily be your favorite cousin, and the imposing ringleader Uri (Rax) might as well be the cool uncle you wanted to be when you were a kid. When did bad guys become likeable this way?
At the center of this drama (yes) is a character study between an artistic ambition that is yet to be fulfilled and an ambition silenced by a cruel misfortune by nature. Ruthie didn’t mislead Niki about her career options, but Niki is a victim of circumstance here. All this time, a virtuoso was dying to be unleashed from within Niki, chained by a disability he didn’t ask for. The clash culminates in this resounding ending between Niki and Ruthie that is both satisfying and unfinished, emotionally sweeping but with a tug at the heart. If it were a Filipino drama, there would have been a single teardrop running down Niki’s cheek. Thankfully that cheese didn’t happen, becuase Tuner is well made that way. Bravo, Tuner.
Tuner will screen exclusively in the following Ayala Malls Cinemas: Glorietta, Greenbelt, TriNoma, Ayala Malls Manila Bay, Fairview Terraces, Central Bloc (Cebu), Centrio (Cagayan de Oro), and Capitol Central (Bacolod) starting today Wednesday, July 22.
Tickets are available at their new ticketing website ayalaallaccess.com
(Images courtesy of Ayala Malls Cinemas.)
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