8 June 2026 – Cinema Club went to ‘Showcase’ cinema to see ‘Tuner’ today. The synopsis on the cinema website was as follows:
“A talented piano tuner who suffers from hyperacusis discovers an unexpected aptitude for cracking safes, turning his life upside down.”
This film had an interesting story-line. Gangsters get involved and there is some nasty violence. At the same time, there is a love story, and there is bonding together in a community, a redemption and lives are changed. There is a lot going on.
The leading members of the cast were: Leo Woodall, Havana Rose Liu and Dustin Hoffman; and the film was directed by Daniel Roher, who also co-wrote the screenplay. He is also known for directing ‘Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band’ and ‘Navalny’.
The plot, setting and acting was very good throughout. I was surprised, but liked this film, and I would recommend it particularly because of the storyline, but also the good acting from the principals, and great support from the accomplished Dustin Hoffman.
Mark Kermode found the film to be “overly-twisty”, with too many coincidences, but the did find the lead convincing as the piano tuner. He describes the film as a “character drama posing as a crime thriller”.
Although he described the third act of the film descending into contrivance and melodrama, he found that there was enough that rings true, and even “too much plot” doesn’t drown-out the story of the characters, which he describes as the main theme of the movie.
I gave it a score of 8, whilst IMDB gave it 7.2, and the Rotten Tomatoes score was 9.4 (94%).
Fraser