TIFF Review: ‘Tuner’ is a Surprising and Enjoyable Composition

Every festival season, there’s at least one title that I go into with zero expectations, only to wind up really enjoying. This year, at the Toronto International Film Festival, it’s Tuner. You may think this is just a movie about a piano tuner and his mentor. Perhaps there’s wisdom exchanged? Well, that’s more or less here, though the film also is about safe cracking. Yeah, bet you didn’t expect that. The ability to pivot effectively is a big part why this flick winds up being as enjoyable as it is.

Tuner manages to start out small and even amusingly light, before giving way to a surprisingly effective darkness. The unusual character study element is where it’s most successful, though even when it gets into genre territory, it’s still doing enough interesting things to always keep your attention. Cliches arrives, but they’re handled decently well.

Niki White (Leo Woodall) is both blessed and cursed by super sensitive hearing. As a child, the condition crippled him and ruined his piano playing days, where he was a prodigy. Now, he deals with it by using ear plugs and utilizes the sensitivity at work, tuning pianos with his mentor Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman). Harry is getting up in years and needs the help, but it’s also very much a father/son type relationship. This simple life is about to be upended by two different events, both of which will have long standing consequences.

One thing is his encounter with piano player Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), which eventually develops into a relationship. The other is when he helps Harry and his wife open their safe. Niki discovers that he has a knack for cracking safe, using his auditory condition to his advantage. It should be a one time thing, but when a tuning job has him stumble upon some shady characters working on a safe, he all of a sudden is recruited into a secondary career. To say what happens next would ruin the surprise, but this quiet film does get far more intense, with interesting results.

Leo Woodall impresses with this showcase role. Of course, Dustin Hoffman is the bigger name, and he’s having a lot of fun, but he’s very much a supporting player. Woodall is the centerpiece, playing an intense yet mellow guy who slowly gets to come out of his shell. Hoffman gets to be a bit bigger and winds up with the funniest moments in the flick, while also having an emotional core to his performance. Havana Rose Lius does nice work as well, even if she’s somewhat of a plot contrivance. The rest of the cast includes Tovah Feldshuh, Lior Raz, Jean Reno, and more, but it’s very much about Woodall here, with a nice little turn by Hoffman as well.

Co-writer/director Daniel Roher, along with his co-writer Robert Ramsey, play around a lot with tone. Roher’s filmmaking also really utilizes some creative sound design, helping to put you in Niki’s headspace. He also gives us the perfect amount of Hoffman, especially given how little time the production likely had with the actor. The move towards violence in the third act is a little abrupt, but the pacing is smooth enough that it’s not a particularly big issue. Plus, there’s a very pleasing ending to go out on.

Tuner will surprise you. Whenever it winds up being released, it’s not only worth seeing, but is a much more mainstream work than expected, even given its festival trappings. An Oscar player, this is probably not, but in terms of effective filmmaking and solid entertainment, it’s a really strong effect, at TIFF or elsewhere.

SCORE: ★★★