Given its title, it’s not surprising that music is key in Daniel Roher’s new film “Tuner,” playing at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center starting on Friday, June 5. The stellar ensemble cast is pitch-perfect. In addition, the film has something for everyone: humor, crime, suspense, drama, and romance. And while there are many moving pieces, somehow the combination just works.
The offbeat indie opens on a light note as we meet Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman), an aging, ornery, funny, hard-of-hearing piano tuner, and his earnest young apprentice, Niki (Leo Woodall). Niki quietly and lovingly endures Harry’s idiosyncrasies as they go from appointment to appointment, calibrating pianos for uber-wealthy New Yorkers, who more often than not also ask them to help fix the toilet or reset their routers, dismissive of the men’s specialized skills.
We learn that Niki was a brilliant child prodigy at the piano but had to give it up because he suffers from hyperacusis, a rare, debilitating disease that makes him intensely sensitive to loud sounds. Niki has to walk through life with earplugs and noise-canceling headphones. However, his heightened hearing and perfect pitch make him an excellent piano tuner, as he can detect even the slightest deviation from a note.
Love comes into the mix when, on a job to tune the piano at an A-list music school before a big performance, Niki meets Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), a promising composition student with big ambitions. With some urging on Harry’s end, the two end up very much in love … although, as in any good love story, not without complications.
And things do indeed get complicated when Harry has a heart attack that lands him in the hospital. Niki learns that he and his wife, Marla (Tovah Feldshuh), are in serious debt. Loving Marla and Harry like parents, Niki succumbs to the wishes of criminals who will reward him handsomely for using his talent for tuning high-end pianos to open the safes of the obscenely wealthy.
Although Niki tries to keep his participation in the heists separate from where his heart lies with Ruthie, Harry, and Marla, seams start to burst, consequences become more dire as one event ricochets off another, and Niki’s life starts to unravel.
The soundtrack is integral to “Tuner,” not simply in the background. It includes classical, jazz, and popular music (including excellent original compositions by Marius de Vries), as well as a portrayal of what it sounds like in Niki’s head when things get way too loud.
The commingling of film genres and musical styles is resonant of a moment in the narrative. Early on, Niki repairs Ruthie’s piano, and she compliments him, saying it’s now perfect. He responds, “One key might sound perfect, but it might not in relation to the 87 others. Tuning a piano is about creating harmony out of chaos.” And as we follow the film’s twists and turns, they flow seamlessly from one to another in beautiful harmony.
“Tuner” screens at the M.V. Film Center starting on Friday, June 5. For tickets and information, visit mvfilmsociety.com.