In a time when popular cinema has been dominated by people using extraordinary abilities to save the universe, one genre that perhaps deserves more love is the drama about someone using a unique skill for a life of crime.
In 2011 there was Ryan Gosling neglecting stunt driving for heist getaways in Drive, which was then echoed by Ansel Elgort’s peerlessly fast taxi service in Baby Driver.
But we also had Ben Affleck using autism for criminal auditing in The Accountant, or even Rami Malek turning from gifted cybersecurity engineer to “hacktivist” for TV’s Mr Robot.
Tuner is a fine entry into this canon. Starring The White Lotus and One Day’s Leo Woodall in his best film role to date, it is a crime drama about a piano tuner who discovers that his curse of hyperacusis — a hearing condition that makes him “allergic to loud noises” — is in fact a gift when it comes to cracking safes. It is to burglars what telekinesis is to the X-Men.
To define Tuner as a straightforward crime film would be reductive, though, as buddy-drama and romcom elements are key to its breezy charms. An enjoyably cheery first act sees Niki (Woodall) driving around with his piano repairman boss and all-round father figure Harry Horowitz, played by Dustin Hoffman relishing the role of a jazz-loving codger who can talk about tuna sandwiches as much as Herbie Hancock.
When they are called out to repair the piano of a talented student composer named Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), Harry is quick to wingman his young friend by telling Ruthie that Niki was a virtuoso pianist before his condition took hold.
Soon enough, the breaking bad begins when he goes to the vacant home of a wealthy piano owner and meets Uri, a home-security businessman with a side hustle of pilfering valuables from his own clients. From here, it must be said that the script treats all the expected genre clichés like sheet music that must be followed, but luckily Daniel Roher’s direction is a little more jazzy.
The Canadian film-maker is known as the Oscar-winning documentarian behind Navalny, the gripping portrait of Vladimir Putin’s political rival who was poisoned by a nerve agent.
Before that, Roher made a film about rock group The Band, which perhaps better augurs Tuner as his narrative debut. Musical cues from the likes of Nina Simone, plus inventive sound design that keys us into Niki’s world and rapid cuts into safe locks, bring real verve to the storytelling and help it find a groove.
It’s a film made with precision that invites you to share in its affection for how things are constructed — from locks to piano hammers and concertos — to the point where there are shades of Michael Mann’s crime classic Thief, especially when Tuner leans into the “competence porn” of Niki moving dials and effortlessly identifying musical notes thanks to his perfect pitch, a side effect of his condition.
Headphoned and hunched throughout, Woodall is a more introverted presence than in his TV roles and here he gives an impressively physical performance as a man of competence but little confidence. When someone threatens him with an airhorn, you wince as if he were at gunpoint.
But despite Hoffman’s Harry getting the script’s best jokes, and an enjoyably ludicrous late cameo from Jean Reno as a famous composer, Havana Rose Liu (Bottoms) is perhaps the most valuable player. The role of the “new girlfriend left in the dark about all the crime” is too often a thankless hand dealt by screenwriters in this genre, but Liu has naturalism and charisma in spades.
Third-act twists arrive in a predictable manner, but Roher finishes proceedings with a real flourish to leave Tuner feeling less like a rote re-recording of a familiar tune — and more a dynamic rendition with plenty of novel arrangements to keep your eyes and ears interested.
Tuner is released in UK cinemas on Friday 29 May.
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