Before I get on with this review, I’ve got to give a special shout out to my dad for picking out this movie for us to go and see. I’ve also got to thank my mom too for coming along with us, because she doesn’t like having any conflict in her moviegoing experience. Which is ironic, because that’s kind of what you need to make a good movie.

Anyways, we saw Tuner (2026), the newest feature film by Canadian filmmaker Daniel Roher. Starring Leo Woodall and the legendary Dustin Hoffman, Tuner is about a hard-of-hearing piano tuner Niki White, who fixes rich people’s pianos throughout New York City and upstate New York. One night, his mentor Harry Horowitz asks him to crack open a safe containing valuable items, and eventually Niki realizes he can use his carefully attuned hearing to help him to do the job. When he stumbles upon a heist in progress at a client’s house, he finds himself working for a group of thieves who acquire his safe-cracking services to steal from the rich.

You wouldn’t think a film about a piano tuner would be exciting, but Roher manages to make it so. He knows how to utilize sound design, editing, and creative camera movements to make each heist entertaining and charming, as sophisticated as the piano pieces in the film are. With each turn of the safe and the close-up shots of the gears, you feel yourself get hypnotized with each heist. The dynamic editing makes the experience all the more exciting, blending each part of the plot together in an Edgar Wright-like symphony.

But underneath the action lies a surprisingly heartwarming family story. Niki’s surrogate father Harry loves tagging along on piano tuning appointments, but he’s also someone who wants to see Niki thrive and explore new relationships. His love of the piano makes it all the more ironic that most of the appointments Niki and Harry go to are in the houses of rich people, who see pianos as decorative pieces instead of instruments with the ability to tell groundbreaking stories. For Harry, pianos aren’t just a tool–they’ve become a member of his family.

Havana Rose Liu’s Ruthie provides a nice foil to Niki. Typically the female love interests in heist films are collateral damage, or moral compasses that are abandoned at the last minute. But thanks to Roher and Robert Ramsey’s script, Ruthie becomes a character of her own, with her virtuoso piano skills complementing the hidden genius in Niki. She also provides a nice path between the two worlds of elite classical music and the working class history of piano music. One revealing conversation between Niki and Ruthie exposes how while Niki is easy to underestimate, it’s not because he has nothing else going for him. It’s just because he was dealt with a shitty hand in life and has to contend with it.

Going from a low-level heist thriller to a family drama to a look into the ambitious world of classical music seems like a tall order to incorporate into a film. They’re very distinct settings that would make even an accomplished director furrow their brows. But Roher makes it look easy. He ties every narrative piece together with precision, making sure audiences feel less like observers and more like participants into every performance, every crime, every important moment. By the end of Tuner, I felt like I had just been on one of the best rollercoaster rides in my life. This is the kind of film you want to see in theaters.

What I love about this film is that nothing feels done by accident. I know that’s true in every picture ever made, but Roher feels like he’s been doing this for years and is more than comfortable doing it for the next 50. My parents and I were on the edge of our seats for the whole thing, and not even the annoying couple in the row behind us could distract us. We were locked in from the start, listening to every note of Roher’s fine-tuned picture.

FURTHER THOUGHTS

• Jean Reno has a very brief role in this, but as usual, he kills it.
• The two henchmen in this film are in the running for Best Henchmen of All Time.
• English Breakfast Productions is behind Tuner, and as someone who loves English Breakfast tea, thank you very much.