PLOT: A piano tuner (Leo Woodall) with a uncommon listening to situation finds himself surprisingly adept at cracking safes, resulting in a brand new, worthwhile (however harmful) sideline.
REVIEW: One of many issues I actually take pleasure in about TIFF is that you could typically stroll into motion pictures you already know nothing about and be completely stunned by how issues unfold over their working time. When Tuner began, it appeared like a unusual drama, very a lot a surrogate father-son story a few younger tuner (performed by Leo Woodall) who buddies round with a a lot older veteran (Dustin Hoffman) who treats him like household. Woodall’s character, Niki, has a uncommon situation the place his ears are oversensitive to the purpose of being debilitated by loud noises. He has to always put on earplugs, and the situation ruined his profession as a piano virtuoso. But, his delicate listening to and ideal pitch made him an awesome tuner—and, because it seems, a safecracker when he runs afoul of some Israeli gangsters who set him as much as work. He’s additionally simply beginning a tentative romance with a music scholar (Havana Rose Liu).
Fairly early on, nevertheless, Tuner turns into far more of against the law film when Hoffman’s Harry falls in poor health, and his spouse (Tovah Feldshuh) can’t sustain with the payments. This sparks Niki to tackle riskier jobs so he will help maintain the kindly previous couple afloat. Whereas it sounds so much like Child Driver, Tuner is so much much less stylized, coming as an alternative from documentarian Daniel Roher, who has a aptitude for environment.
Woodall, who made an enormous impression in The White Lotus season two, positively looks like a star on the rise. I obtained younger Mickey Rourke vibes from him, with Niki brooding, powerful, but additionally sweet-natured, particularly in how he treats Hoffman and Feldshuh’s characters. Hoffman, who’s been offscreen so much lately, has a ball sinking his enamel into the eccentric previous tuner, who lectures his younger ward in regards to the job but additionally finds his psychological schools slipping away. Feldshuh, likewise, is heat as his spouse, whereas Havana Rose Liu is charming as Niki’s love curiosity.
The film additionally has some actual menace courtesy of Israeli actor Lior Raz, who performs Uri, the top of a low-rent crew who sees Niki as his ticket to huge bucks. Initially coming off as fatherly, he turns into extra of a risk because the film goes on. Even when all of it sounds fairly predictable, it by no means fairly goes down the way in which you assume. Actually, I used to be stunned by how violent the final act will get, because it takes a pointy however considerably sensible flip that caught a lot of the viewers off guard. It might begin out a bit like Child Driver, however after some time it begins feeling extra like James Toback’s Fingers. It looks like Roher wished his crime story to have actual stakes and penalties for all concerned, and he deserves credit score for by no means turning Woodall’s likeable Niki into an excessive amount of of a crime-movie powerful man—he’s alleged to be an overwhelmed child, and that’s how he comes off.
Tuner was definitely a pleasant shock: a solidly crafted, well-acted thriller that I loved. Whereas it’s not the sort of film that can get a ton of buzz out of TIFF because it’s low-key (just like final 12 months’s TIFF entry, Relay), it’s positively price maintaining an eye fixed out for.
