I’ve seen Tuner more than once and while it’s a thriller with its fair share of surprises, it holds up awfully well. I would urge you to go out and see it at your first opportunity. If grownups don’t support an entertaining mainstream movie like this while it’s playing in theaters what hope is there for other budding filmmakers to get their stories told?
The premise of the picture came about when Daniel Roher, who won an Academy Award for his outstanding documentary Navalny, found himself seated next to a stranger at an industry event. He asked the fellow what he did for a living and learned that his luncheon mate was a piano tuner. This set the wheels turning in his mind and led him to recruit Robert Ramsey, who teaches screenwriting at USC, to become his partner in fashioning a script about a man whose profession has never been the focal point of a feature film before. Roher and Ramsey exploited a little-understood facet of the job and ran with it. (Ramsey came to my class with the film, along with two savvy producers, JoAnne Sellar and Lila Yacoub.)
The casting is flawless. Leading man Leo Woodall is a rising talent—first showcased in The White Lotus and currently costarring in the streaming series Vladimir. He made use of a dialect coach to hide his natural British accent, which I only know because I’m a compulsive credit-reader. At 88, Dustin Hoffman is a major asset to any film, especially one that allows him to play what he is: an aging mensch who loves hanging out with his protégé. Havana Rose Liu is a great matchup for Woodall; they fit together quite well and their relationship is completely credible. Supporting roles are filled by such welcome actors as Tovah Feldshuh and Jean Reno.
The storyline sees our hero being pulled into an unfamiliar world of crime that he disdains at first, then begins to embrace when he sees how much a cache of cash can do for him and his family. No spoilers from me, but I ‘d encourage you to see Tuner before your friends and people in the media spoil all of its well-calculated surprises.
Again, the operative phrase here is “see it.” Tuner opened in a handful of cites last Friday and expands much wider this coming weekend. Don’t wait for it to show up on your streaming channel. Grab your favorite moviegoing partner and watch it surrounded bv an audience, in the dark, on a screen that is larger than life. This is how all films were meant to be seen, especially ones that tell a gripping story in a way that feels fresh and original.
