Tuner of Pianos (and Safes)
How do highly prized saltwater fish discover an unexpected aptitude to crack safes? Well, they don’t. Although this would probably be a great plotline for OpporTUNAty: a Shark Tale Sequel, this week’s film is not about fish, but about a piano tuner. Tuner is the latest film by Daniel Roher (Blink, 2024; Navalny, 2022) and it is a well casted, funny thriller about a man capable of cracking safes with his highly developed sense of hearing.
Leo Woodhall plays Niki White, a young man with hyperacusis – an auditory disorder where EVERYDAY NOISES ARE PERCEIVED AS UNCOMFORTABLY LOUD. This condition has ended his career as a piano player, however the acute sensitivity to sound has proved useful in the fine art of piano tunning. Take under the wing of the experienced, yet rapidly declining, tuner Harry Harrowitz (the great Dustin Hoffman), Niki quickly learns the craft. It is when Harry forgets the code to his safe, that Niki discovers he can also hear the tumblers of the safe fall, cracking into it. Learning of this skill, gang leader Uri (Lior Raz) hires Niki, splitting his life in two.
Leo Woodhall’s first major feature film performance is nothing to overlook, and his supporting cast, with Dustin Hoffman, Havana Rose Liu and Lior Raz, never fails to keep up with him! The brilliance of the film, however, might very well lie elsewhere. The fantastic sound design from Johnnie Burn (who was already brilliant in The Zone of Interest, 2023) really elevates the film, making the audience experience how the world might sound to Niki. Although the film shares similar strands of DNA to Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver (2017), it is still original it its execution (and sound design!). So, this week, be like a tuna and, either alone or with your school of fish, swim across to the Dukes to see this great indie crime thriller. See you there!
Written by João Eduardo Lima Belchior
