Tuner

TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025 REVIEW! In Tuner, Dustin Hoffman plays Henry, a lively, warm-hearted piano tuner. However, his advanced age is causing him to lose both his hearing and his memory. His apprentice Nikki (Leo Woodall) does most of the work, and the two have a bond that is closer to father/son than to employer and employee. Nikki was a musical prodigy until a rare condition sidelined him. He has ultra-sensitive hearing, causing him to constantly have to wear headphones to block out loud sounds.

While Henry has a medical episode, Nikki has to operate the business on his own, leading to an encounter with Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), a seemingly self-absorbed pianist and composer at a music conservatory. In one of his wealthy client’s homes, he also runs across a shady security contractor, Uri (Lior Raz), who convinces Nikki to put his sensitive hearing to work cracking safes. At first, Nikki does this on the up and up, for consenting owners, but when Henry’s medical bills pile up, Nikki lets Uri persuade him to help his team with a little casual grand larceny.

“…Nikki finds himself trapped between people who depend on him, where trying to help one comes at the cost of the other people he cares about.”

Meanwhile, Nikki is starting a relationship with Ruthie, who is vying for an apprenticeship with a famous composer, and knows nothing about his extracurricular adventures. Eventually, things start to go sideways, and Nikki finds himself trapped between people who depend on him, where trying to help one comes at the cost of the other people he cares about.

Tuner is an amazing transition to feature filmmaking from director Daniel Roher, who has more than a decade-long career as a documentarian with such films as Once Were Brothers, Navalny, and Blink. He co-wrote the script with Robert Ramsey, and the result is a tight, thoughtful character piece that moves along at a thrilling pace, backed by ever-escalating safecracking and relationship drama. Towards the end, Nikki is in such a bind that we are hard-pressed to understand how he can get out of his predicament. Roher takes a sophisticated approach that keeps the characters true to themselves and delivers on the consequences without wrapping things up neatly in a bow.