It's interesting how movies try to place the audience in the protagonist's shoes. I just watched Tuner and walked away with that exact feeling—a story designed to make you empathize with someone living with hearing issues. Personally, it made me reflect on how hearing is a sense we ought to value, just like all the others that give meaning to life.
The story follows Niki White (Leo Woodall), an introverted young man who tunes pianos for a living but ironically suffers from hyperacusis—an extreme auditory sensitivity that turns everyday noise into pure agony. However, this same sensitivity grants him absolute pitch, making him a musical prodigy. Life changes dramatically for this young man when his mentor Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman) falls ill, leaving his wife buried in medical debt.
Driven by his desire to help, Niki gets involved with Uri (Lior Raz), a criminal who uses the young man's acute hearing to crack safes by listening to their internal mechanical gears. In the midst of this double life, Niki tries to stay under the radar, keep his sanity, and continue posing as an honest piano tuner. His life intersects with Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), a violinist who represents his only safe haven and anchor to normalcy.
Analysis
While its plot isn't revolutionary, I wouldn't say it reinventing the classic heist thriller structure, but I can't deny it innovates by integrating sound design so deeply into the narrative. It lacks car chases and shootouts; in fact, there is plenty of silence, precisely to establish the contrast between the protagonist's world and everyone else's—a storytelling device I think was handled quite well.
I believe the director wants the audience to feel Niki's physical vulnerability, which is why there's this dynamic audio interplay between silence and loud noise. It strikes me as a brilliant way to use sound as a pure narrative tool. However, in the film's final act, this approach is set aside to make room for a couple of clichés that seem inevitable in this genre, though they don't erase the value of what the plot built up to that point.
In the end, the core message really stayed with me: an extraordinary gift can be an unbearable torture when it isn't managed or used properly. Tuner touches on several key themes, such as loyalty, the weight of silence, sacrificing for those we love, and finding peace amid the noise of the world. It is definitely a film with solid themes, and one that is well worth watching with a great sound system in a room with good acoustics.
Media from TMBD gallery
Rating: 70/100
