Tuner (MA) – 108 minutes

This is a surprising crime thriller about a medically challenged piano tuner cum safe cracker.

Niki White (Leo Woodall) has a severe medical condition that means he can’t tolerate loud noises.

He was a musical prodigy when his hearing was compromised at age 7. 

Now he has to wear inner ear aids with headphones on top just to deal with everyday life.

After two years of therapy, he still has perfect pitch, but he no longer plays the piano.

Instead, he is “apprentice” to Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman), an ageing maestro of piano tuners, who loves him as a son and vice versa.

Mind you, Harry is deaf without hearing aids, is suffering from dementia and is on the decline. 

So it is that with Horowitz’s empathetic wife Marla (Tovah Feldshuh) paving the way,

White starts attending jobs on his own. 

Two chance meetings in these environments will reshape and complicate his life.

The first involves a diligent, but highly stressed piano student, Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), involved with advanced composition.

The second concerns the rough, intimidatory head of a security firm, Uri (Lior Raz), who attends to affluent clients by stealing from them.

As Niki keeps accidentally bumping into Ruthie, a relationship develops between the pair. 

With Horowitz hospitalised and in need of money to pay for mounting outstanding debts, Niki chances his arm by helping out Uri.

From the moment he does, he has a level of discomfort. He quickly becomes drawn deeper and deeper into Uri’s crooked and dangerous web.

Inevitably that will see him compromise his relationship with Ruthie.

A cracking script by director and co-writer (with Robert Ramsay) Daniel Roher and heartfelt performances characterise this sensitive and dramatic tale.

From the get go, we are champions for the well-meaning Niki White, who is realised with great understanding by Leo Woodall in a bravura showing. 

Havana Rose Liu brings intensity and thought to her portrayal of Ruthie.

Hoffman is cheeky and spirited as Harry Horowitz, while Tovah Feldshuh showcases instinctive street smarts as his loving wife Marla.

An air of foreboding surrounds Lior Raz as Uri from the moment he enters the picture.

Sharp edits at the start of Tuner set the tone.

Visually, there is a lot to like about how the plot unfolds in a surfeit of varying workplaces. The cinematography by Lowell A. Meyer is among the features.

I was immediately drawn in and readily carried along for the rocky and, at times, amusing ride, for there is homespun humour in the screenplay.

In summary then, there is much to enjoy and savour in anything but a run of the mill crime actioner.

Rated MA, it scores an 8½ out of 10.