Tuner: Love Hurts, But Sound Hurts Even More in this Powerful, Personal Thriller
By Jim Slotek
Rating: A-
Forget flames and flying ability. Everyday people can have more prosaic superpowers, but they come at a cost.
In the thriller Tuner, a powerful and gripping fictional departure for Canadian documentarian Daniel Roher (Navalny), the title character (Leo Woodall) is possessed of transcendent hearing. An erstwhile piano virtuoso, he has perfect pitch, and can identify the most arcane chord with ease.
Niki (Leo Woodall)’s super-normal hearing takes a criminal turn in Tuner.
Unfortunately, being able to hear that acutely has left him with hyperacusis, a rare syndrome that makes most sounds excruciatingly painful, and leaves him unable to play with a piano – except in one way.
While wearing noise-cancelling earphones 24/7, Niki plies his trade as a piano tuner for an avuncular former jazzman named Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman). Their clientele ranges from the nouveau riche, who don’t appreciate the real value of their pricey musical possessions, to classical conservatories, where his uncanny ear for fine piano tuning is appreciated.
It’s in the latter place that Niki meets another prodigy, a stellar and ambitious piano student named Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu). They meet cutely, if obstreperously (with a little help from Harry), scratching an itch that Roher has hinted at. (There’s a quick shot of Niki with a melancholy glance at a couple in love. Niki is lonely.)
The scenario of a gifted blue collar worker turning the tables on arrogant college students evokes Good Will Hunting. But Tuner has a dark side that film didn’t.
Harry is becoming forgetful, if not outright dementia-stricken. And when he forgets the combination to his safe, Niki takes it upon himself, with the help of YouTube, to learn safecracking, from the subtle sounds of tumblers, barely perceptible to most.
His newest ear-born skill comes to the attention of Uri (Lior Raz), a contractor who doubles as a high-end burglar of his clients’ homes. Uri is ambitious too, anxious to climb the ladder of organized crime. And he sees Niki as his ticket.
Thus is Niki presented with the classic deal-with-the-devil, involving money enough to pay for Harry’s increasing, uninsured medical expenses and to buy the company van to take care of Harry’s business. And maybe to give Ruthie a gift she' could never afford.
It’s obvious from the word go that no good can come from this. And Ruthie will get caught up in it. But Niki’s generous intentions make that path even more achingly fraught to watch. Woodall’s work so far in projects like Vampire Academy and season two of The White Lotus hasn’t really allowed him to flex his acting muscle anywhere near this much. But here, he is the gravitational centre of the film. His face is simultaneously subtle and expressive, and his manner connotes stoic pain, in contrast to the medical hell we discover he has lived through since childhood.
Director Roher manages to recreate that hell for the audience without any verbalization from Woodall/Niki. Noise-as-pain is communicated directly in scenes where Niki is stricken and sometimes even tortured by a vindictive Uri. (A colleague at a screening I attended said she was glad she’d brought earplugs.)
Tuner is a distinctly urban romantic fable and tragedy, with a final act that is half-full or half-empty depending on your expectations of how a movie should finish. What’s clear is that Niki is an atypical protagonist, played by an actor who is up to the challenge.
Tuner. Directed and co-written by Daniel Roher. Starring Leo Woodall, Havana Rose Liu and Dustin Hoffman. In theatres May 29.