Tuner Review: A Series of Unfortunate Events

Tuner is held back by too many coincidences and a story that dictates character choices instead of the other way around, but elevated by great performances and sound design.

Back then, Niki had made Ruthie’s acquaintance by doing what he does best: excelling at his job and showing off his “perfect pitch” in that earnest, unassuming way of his that makes him so disarming to everyone he meets.” With Ruthie being just as naturally gifted and self-assured as he is, the two had instantly hit it off, sparking a blossoming romance. But the composition student isn’t the only stranger Niki stumbles upon in Daniel Roher’s (Navalny, Blink) narrative feature debut.

Tuner has a fantastic premise. A skilled piano tuner has hyperacusis, an auditory condition that makes him highly sensitive to noise. Everyday sounds that others perceive as normal are extremely loud – often uncomfortably so – to his ears. That’s why he relies on two devices: small earplugs he never takes off, and noise-canceling headphones he places on top of them when the ambient environment gets too intense.

Though Niki can’t play the piano anymore, his hearing disorder still makes him excel at his current job, as his ability to hear even the tiniest of sounds allows him to tune pianos to perfection. One day, just when his mentor is hospitalized and he finds himself in desperate need of money to help Harry and his wife Marla (Tovah Feldshuh, of Armageddon Time), he discovers that his ‘very specific set of skills’ uniquely qualifies him for another job – one that’s far more profitable, but also much more dangerous.

Said ‘job opportunity’ presents itself at the very beginning of Tuner, and that’s when the film starts showing its potential, but also its narrative flaws. The idea itself is brilliant: while working alone late at night at a client’s house, Niki hears noise in the house, which leads him to a room where three ‘security contractors’ are drilling into a safe. “Do you know how long you’re gonna be?,” Niki asks, matter-of-fact, showing zero awareness of the danger he’s in. “How long it’s gonna take,” head ‘contractor’ Uri (Lior Raz) responds, taken aback yet slightly amused, “so unless you can open the safe…”

The rest, as they say, is history, especially since Niki just-so-happens to have just learned how to crack a safe, a few days prior, when Harry had accidentally locked his hearing aids away and forgotten the code. In fact, it had taken Niki no time to open Harry’s safe, after watching a tutorial online, and it takes him just as little time to help Uri and his team – his dog-loving nephew Benny (Nissan Sakira) and “smart guy” Yoni (Gil Cohen). But with great power come great responsibility, and Niki soon discovers that his actions have consequences.

Chaos ensues, and while it won’t be spoiled in this review, there are certainly surprises to be found in Tuner. As Niki’s personal and professional lives are profoundly affected by the choices he makes, he ultimately learns a lesson about morality, while finding some purpose along the way. Yet, while the film is consistently engaging and often tense, Tuner is also held back by a screenplay (Daniel Roher and Robert Ramsey) where the characters, and Woodall’s Niki in particular, feel built around the story, and not the other way around.

As we follow Niki’s mishaps, each action triggers a new problem that is immediately resolved to make room for the next, in a chain of events that quickly starts to feel very convenient, even more so given the many coincidences in the film. One example involves Niki learning a highly unusual skill mere days before he’s suddenly asked to use it, but there are others, including one at the very end that stretches plausibility and significantly lowers the film’s overall stakes.

To its credit, Tuner excels at not judging its characters, extending empathy even to its criminals, which are never portrayed as one-dimensional antagonists. However, it also gives us a protagonist whose main defining traits – his perfect pitch, sensory condition, musical genius, photographic memory, and even his social awkwardness – exist because the screenplay requires them. While this doesn’t make Niki any less likable or interesting – also thanks to Woodall’s fantastic lead performance – it deprives him of the emotional depth needed to make the audience fully invested in his journey.

Furthermore, while hyperacusis acts as Niki’s ‘superpower’ in the movie, Tuner also seems to want to punish the character for the very same trait that makes him special, and given that hyperacusis is a real, recognized medical disability, some of the film’s creative choices are questionable at best. Niki is in pain in various scenes of the movie, but one moment in particular, which will be left unspoiled, feels particularly cruel. More than that, it feels borderline exploitative, given the lack of empathy and thematic depth, as the character’s agony is mainly in service to a quick, neat resolution that makes the movie come full circle rather than further exploring its themes.

Tuner has its flaws, but it remains an interesting project thanks to its strong cast and impressive technical execution. Leo Woodall and Havana Rose Liu are the clear standouts, making us invested in their characters, both alone and together, even when the screenplay does not. While the great Dustin Hoffman is underused in a role that acts as an (at times, explicit) reference to Rain Man, he still commands the screen, and his presence is a welcome addition to the film. The rest of the cast shines too, with Cohen, Raz, and Sakira providing great comedic relief.

The sound design is where the film truly excels. Sound designer Johnnie Burn (The Zone of Interest) and his team create a complex sonic environment that places us directly inside Niki’s head. We perceive the world exactly as he does, which results in an often alienating – and at times even uncomfortable – experience that fully evolves into an attack on our senses in a key moment in the movie. The sound design also creates most of the tension in a movie that sometimes plays out like a thriller, and will have you on the edge of your seat and fearing for our characters’ fates more than once.

Narrative-wise, Tuner is too “pitch perfect” for its own good, its story largely consisting of a series of coincidences that take our protagonist where he needs to go in order for all of the film’s elements to come full circle at the end. On top of lacking emotional depth, the movie’s treatment of its protagonist is contradictory and even problematic, treating the character’s disability as both a superpower and something he should be punished for, which results in some scenes that may make some viewers uncomfortable. Still, Tuner means well; the story is never boring, and its performances, technical execution, and unique premise make this an absorbing piece of cinema that’s worth the watch.

Tuner will be released globally in theaters on May 29, 2026.