Tuner movie review: Leo Woodall steps up in unusual, satisfying heist caper

Tuner is not a regular heist thriller.

Safes are cracked and guns are waved, but it unfolds at an unusual pace, and the score is not at all the point.

This is a far more character-driven film than a plot-driven one, which capers tend to be. The genre usually builds towards the theft, often with a hidden-from-the-audience twist that allows for an “oh, isn’t that clever” moment.

The lead character of Tuner, Niki (Leo Woodall), doesn’t delight in the thefts, it was something he accidentally fell into, and doesn’t quite know what he’s doing there.

Niki has hyperacusis, which is an increased sensitivity to sound. In Niki’s case, it means he can’t tolerate environmental noise and needs to wear ear plugs and headphones whenever he’s out in the world.

His condition also means he has perfect pitch and hearing. He was once a prodigious pianist but can no longer play, and it’s something that he hasn’t processed, you can see the longing on his face every time he’s near an instrument.

Which is often because Niki is an apprentice piano tuner to Harry (Dustin Hoffman), an old family friend and pseudo-parent who, in real life, would be someone you would describe as “a character”. Harry is gregarious and present, brimming with that scattered Hoffman charm.

In quick succession, three things happen to Niki. He meets Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), a piano student, Harry has a heart attack, and he chances upon a group of thieves while he’s on a job.

In the latter encounter, Niki agreed to help them break into the safe because what he really needed was for them to stop drilling, the noise is physically making him unwell.

That’s how he becomes part of a heist group, using his hearing to break into the safes of wealthy targets. His choice is not framed along moral or ethical lines, it was one of practicality.

Harry’s hospital bills very quickly amount to the tens of thousands (the American healthcare system, folks) and his moonlight gig enables him to pay them off so that Harry and his wife Marla (Tobvah Feldshuh) won’t be saddled with horrifying debt.

Obviously, things go awry, that’s the crime thriller aspect of the film, which Tuner director Daniel Roher manages very well. It conveys a genuine feeling of jeopardy and anxiety as Niki gets in over his head and is unable to extricate himself.

These intersecting aspects of his life are all at stake, and Woodall is able to portray that escalation persuasively across different tones including thriller, rom-com and family drama.

Woodall has been an actor “on the rise” since he played a supporting role in the second season of The White Lotus, and even though he’s had attention-grabbing roles in the likes of young adult romantic weepie One Day, as a love interest in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, and a mathematician on the run in Prime Target, he’s doing something in Tuner that suggests he’s really stepping into his talent.

He feels more present in this character, and part of the world of Tuner. In director Daniel Roher, Woodall has found someone who’s working in sync with him.

Roher’s background is in factual filmmaking and his 2022 film, Navalny, won the Oscar for documentary feature. Tuner is his first narrative film, and you can see a certain fidelity to grounded realism here, even in a genre as heightened as a heist caper.

The sound design is excellent – an expectation but not a guarantee – and the film clips along really well, concluded before you were ready for it to be.

A very satisfying movie.

Rating: 4/5

Tuner is in cinemas