“Tuner” Delightfully Packs Everything But the Kitchen Sink

Sundance Spotlight Program, starring Leo Woodall and Dustin Hoffman, brings charm to the festival’s opening – the last in its beloved Park City.

Sundance opened its final edition in Park City on January 22nd with Tuner, a fun, but predictable, thrill-packed drama that had already whipped up significant buzz in the Telluride and Toronto film festivals last year. Starring Leo Woodall (White Lotus) with Dustin Hoffman, the film is co-written by Daniel Roher and Robert Ramsey, with Roher also serving in the director’s chair. 

Tuner is the kind of hybrid film that gives everyone something of what they want in healthy proportions. It’s part romance, part comedy, part action thriller, with even a tiny dash of fantasy thrown in (okay, I’ll admit that’s being a little cheeky).

Woodall plays Niki, a shy piano tuner who serves as apprentice to the irascible Harry Horowitz, played with elegant charm by Hoffman. Once a fiercely independent business owner, Horowitz finds that he’s quickly losing his grip on the many facets of that independence and relies more and more heavily on Niki to make things work. While he, himself, is losing his hearing, Niki suffers from hyperacusis, a condition that renders normal sound unbearable, so much so that he wears earphones to help dampen sound. At the same time, however, Niki is a former child piano prodigy whose perfect pitch makes him well suited to the profession. The two form an endearing pair, and the chemistry Woodall and Hoffman exude onscreen makes it easy to see why Niki feels a sense of responsibility when Harry suffers a heart attack, landing him in the hospital. 

Niki learns from Harry’s wife, Maria (Tovah Feldshuh), that he hasn’t kept up with insurance premiums, and they’ll need to sell the company van to cover costs. Having leveraged YouTube videos, Niki once helped the couple retrieve Harry’s hearing aid from a home safe. This new skill comes in handy when Niki, on a solo tuning job, comes across a team of “safe crackers” hired by well-to-do clients looking to retrieve items from their own home safe.

When Niki cracks the safe in no time, the team sees an opportunity to bring him aboard for other “jobs,” while Niki sees a way to get the Horowitz’s the funds they need. 

Romance comes into play when Niki’s smitten with pianist/composer Ruthie, played with a bit of requisite stoicism by Havana Rose Liu (Bottoms). Initially hard-nosed, Ruthie warms to Niki’s charms over a quick-and-dirty montage of short but endearing scenes. The whole sequence is believable enough to distract from the life of crime Niki has descended into and what it portends for his future.

Things really come to a head when Niki’s worlds collide. It turns out a watch Niki’s given Ruthie was originally stolen from a world renowned composer she’s just been invited to apprentice for (We can chalk that up to New York being a small place). When Niki promises to make things right, he runs afoul of his crew, breaking into their safe to retrieve the remainder of the jewelry from the composer’s home. Battered, broken and tortured with an air horn that leaves him effectively deaf. Niki returns to Ruthie with the stolen goods and their relationship on life support. 

In a final gasp of dignity, Niki shows Ruthie he’s more than just a tuner, more than just a thief, by stepping up to the concert grand in her mentor’s studio and playing the complex composition she’s been working on for months. Pulling off the piece by ear is plausible, what isn’t is a pianist who hasn’t played in decades retaining the gymnastic finger dexterity necessary to perform an unbelievably difficult concert level piece on the spot. As I said, a tiny bit of fantasy. 
Nonetheless, Tuner is a heartily entertaining story that makes up in depth and connection for what it lacks in twists and turns.