{"id":556889,"date":"2026-06-27T11:50:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/556889\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T11:50:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:50:21","slug":"film-review-tuner-mixes-classical-music-crime-and-dustin-hoffman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/556889\/","title":{"rendered":"Film review: ‘Tuner’ mixes classical music, crime, and Dustin Hoffman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuner, now playing in theaters throughout Israel, is an offbeat, interesting drama and crime caper, with some funny moments.<\/p>\n

It co-stars Dustin Hoffman<\/a> in a story of a young piano tuner, Niki (Leo Woodall), a former music prodigy with perfect pitch who suffers from hyperacusis, a condition that makes him extraordinarily sensitive to loud noises.<\/p>\n

In a series of events that are a bit improbable but that seem quite credible while you\u2019re watching, Niki discovers his finely tuned hearing gives him a great talent for safecracking, which brings him to the attention of a crime gang.<\/p>\n

It features a clever, often surprising screenplay, co-written by its director, Daniel Roher (who won an Oscar for the documentary, Navalny) and Robert Ramsey. There are also wonderful performances from the cast, which also includes distinguished actress Tovah Feldshuh of Nobody Wants This<\/a> and Fauda star Lior Raz.<\/p>\n

\"DUSTINDUSTIN HOFFMAN (behind) and Leo Woodall in \u2018Tuner.\u2019 (credit: Forum Films)The characters have a nice, funny raport<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Tuner opens, Niki is working in a piano-tuning business in New York with a former musician, Harry Horowitz (Hoffman).<\/p>\n

The beefy, laconic, young man treats the garrulous, wisecracking Harry with respect, listening patiently to all his jokes and stories about the good old days when he worked with jazz greats.<\/p>\n

These two have a nice rapport, as Niki drives Harry all over the New York area in an old van and eats in diners with him.<\/p>\n

Niki does the work while Harry sits on a sofa, critiquing him.<\/p>\n

The two stick out like sore thumbs in the many mansions where they work on spectacular pianos that haven\u2019t been played in decades, for clients who ask them if they can also repair toilets and modems.<\/p>\n

Harry, who never made much of a living despite his talent, has fallen on hard times, and he and his wife, Marla (Feldshuh), are barely scraping by. Niki is also broke.<\/p>\n

Recognizing what a great musician Niki is, Harry tries to cajole him into playing again, but the younger man refuses, living an isolated life and trying not to draw attention to himself.<\/p>\n

The three incidents that set the plot in motion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harry has forgotten the combination to his safe and needs to open it. When Niki goes on YouTube to look at a video on how to do it, he discovers that his sensitive hearing makes him a genius at safecracking.<\/p>\n

Harry becomes ill and, due to a mess with Medicare, suddenly falls into a huge debt; and Niki meets Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), an extremely ambitious pianist and composing student, who is astounded by his perfect pitch.<\/p>\n

Soon, Niki\u2019s talent for safecracking draws the attention of Uri (Lior Raz<\/a>), an Israeli who runs a bogus security company, where he uses his knowledge of his client\u2019s homes and passwords to steal what he contends are minor trinkets, but which add up to big money for his gang, much like Jon Hamm\u2019s character in the Apple TV series, Your Friends and Neighbors.<\/p>\n

Raz hams it up as a character who fits the stereotype of the obnoxious Israeli in the US, and lords it over his supposedly bright accomplice, Yoni (Gil Frank), and his much dimmer nephew, Benny (Nissan Sakira).<\/p>\n

Much of the comedy in the movie comes from Uri browbeating the two, and if you can understand the Hebrew, it\u2019s even funnier than the subtitles.<\/p>\n

Criticisms of Tuner<\/strong><\/p>\n

Niki\u2019s romance with Ruthie, which develops quickly, feels a little convenient at times, though the screenplay paints a realistic picture of the competitive world of high-level music students. You know, for most of the movie, that eventually Niki will reveal to her that he was once a great pianist, and when it comes, it\u2019s something of an anti-climax.<\/p>\n

After Hoffman’s character gets sick, he disappears from the rest of the movie except for a couple of scenes, and that\u2019s too bad. It\u2019s great to see Hoffman having fun as Harry, and the scenes where he and Niki banter help humanize the younger man, making him more likable and less self-centered.<\/p>\n

Woodall is one of the most in-demand young actors. He played a hunky love interest in both Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy and the Netflix series Vladimir; he also appeared in the second season of The White Lotus.<\/p>\n

He has a buff body and conventional leading-man good looks, and generally plays confident, happy-go-lucky guys, which means he is cast against type here.<\/p>\n

Niki is the kind of role that might seem better suited for actors like Josh O\u2019Connor, Jeremy Allen White, or Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet. Woodall has to work hard to convince us he is withdrawn and feels out of place in all the mansions where he tunes pianos, but his charm wins out, and soon, you come to accept him in the role.<\/p>\n

Mixed music and mixed genres<\/strong><\/p>\n

The soundtrack features a mix of classical music and jazz<\/a>, and it\u2019s clear it was made by a director who appreciates both.<\/p>\n

Tuner settles neatly into a mini-genre of movies that feature plot lines that combine piano-playing characters and crime, that include James Toback\u2019s Fingers with Harvey Keitel, and Jacques Audiard\u2019s remake of it, The Beat that My Heart Skipped with Romain Duris; Francois Truffaut\u2019s Shoot the Piano Player with Charles Aznavour; and Eugenio Mira\u2019s Grand Piano with Elijah Wood. It also recalls the spirit of Bob Rafelson\u2019s Five Easy Pieces, which features Jack Nicholson in one of his best performances; here as a piano prodigy who has rejected his oppressive family and become an oil field worker.<\/p>\n

Tuner shares some of the bleakness typical of 1970s films, like Fingers and Five Easy Pieces. At times, the movie moves jarringly between brooding, almost noir-like darkness and scenes with the chatty Harry or the bumbling gangsters.<\/p>\n

It might have been a stronger film if Roher had gone in one direction instead of mixing genres, but it would likely have been less entertaining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuner, now playing in theaters throughout Israel, is an offbeat, interesting drama and crime caper, with some funny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[18,117,238168,136470,238167,19,17,71,1382,74175,327],"class_list":["post-556889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-fauda","tag-film-review","tag-hebrew","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-movie","tag-movie-reviews","tag-movies"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116821926580106757","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}