3 min readMay 29, 2026 05:37 PM IST
Tuner movie review: Paraphrasing Billy Joel’s Piano Man, if you’all in the mood for a melody, this film has got you feelin’ alright.
Seemingly discordant storylines are strung together into a pleasing whole by director-co-writer Daniel Roher (who won an Oscar for his Navalny documentary), largely due to the effortless charm of its cast.
Leo Woodall is Niki, a piano prodigy who now tunes pianos for a living, having developed a hearing condition that has left him allergic to loud sounds. Two years of therapy, of being kept in a dark room, means he can just about get around the world of noise via ear plugs and noise-cutting headphones.
Dustin Hoffman is Harry, a piano player of some repute and a friend of Niki’s late dad, who runs the piano tuning and fixing company where Niki works. The film begins with their effortless banter as Harry trades his wisdom and tricks with his beloved Niki, and tries to evade the sharp eyes of his wife Marla (the unmissable Tovah Feldshuh) who is worried for his failing health.
Havana Rose Liu is Ruthie, a pianist training to be a composer and hoping that the piece she is preparing for her graduation will earn her a place with her favourite maestro (Jean Reno in a brief role). Ruthie and Niki meet over a piano repair session, and sparks fly – as do keys and notes – in an effective meet-cute.
If the keyboard instrument ties together this strand, it is Niki’s hearing condition that puts him in the path of Uri (Lior Raz, of Fauda). The latter runs a company that provides hi-tech security to rich clients, which he also uses to steal things here and there that the wealthy don’t miss. It is “The Law of Diminishing Marginal Reality”, Uri and his gang explain to Niki, with different things meaning different things depending on one’s class. Since Niki is sensitive to the slightest sounds, he can figure out how to open locks of safes, turning the knob this way and that.
When the worlds of the piano players and the robber gangs meet, as they shall invariably, the clash is not as loud as one would expect. Niki’s hearing condition provides a convenient plot interlude more than once; at other times, the film falls back on sheer incongruity; the redistribution of wealth logic to justify the robberies is also a stretch.
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“Tuning a piano is like creating harmony out of chaos,” says Niki. Some keys remain out of tune, but Tuner manages more harmony than chaos.
Tuner movie director: Daniel Roher
Tuner movie cast: Leo Woodall, Dustin Hoffman, Havana Rose Liu, Tovah Feldshuh, Lior Raz
Tuner movie rating: 3.5 stars
