In Tuner, a talented piano tuner with an abnormal sensitivity to sound discovers an unexpected aptitude for cracking safes, turning his life upside down. Source: Australian Catholics.
The film, in fact, features two piano tuners – the young Niki (Woodall) and the older Harry (Hoffman), a veteran musician and tutor.
Niki is a talented musician with perfect pitch but suffers from hyperacusis – finding loud noises intolerable.
He has had two years of therapy to try to adjust his hearing and has to wear earplugs. Despite this physical ailment, he is an expert tuner.
Harry is Niki’s mentor. An old friend of Niki’s father, Harry is finding ageing difficult. He is hospitalised, but it is revealed he has not been keeping up with his health insurance payments.
This provides the setting for something of a thriller, and when Niki meets Ruthie (Liu), a highly determined musician and composer, the film is also a pleasant romance.
Niki encounters a group of security guards one night while tuning a piano and discovers he has a knack for hearing sounds that help him unlock safes.
Not too unpredictable to work out what is about to happen. Our sympathies are with Niki and Harry. But, course, it can’t last. Ambitious criminals hire lower criminals to do their dirty work and a build-up to some dramatic confrontations.
Review by Fr Peter Malone MSC, Jesuit Media
Tuner: Starring Leo Woodall, Dustin Hoffman, Havana Rose Liu. Directed by Daniel Roher. Rated MA (Strong coarse language)
FULL REVIEW
Tuner (Australian Catholics)
