Tuner arrives with a provocative premise but falters in its execution. The Daniel Roher–helmed drama centers on Niki White, a pianist whose hyperacusis—a heightened sensitivity to sound—shapes every moment of the story. Leo Woodall embodies Niki with a taut, wary energy, while Dustin Hoffman appears as a seasoned mentor. Havana Rose Liu delivers a memorable turn as Ruthie, a pianist-composer drawn into a high-stakes scheme involving a European maestro played by Jean Reno. The film runs 109 minutes and landed in theaters on May 29, 2026.
The project seeks to fuse music, disability, and crime into a glossy caper, but it never fully lands. The plot lumbers through familiar thriller territory, and the interplay between ambition and vulnerability feels underdeveloped. The attempt to render savant-like skill as something sexy comes off as a cliché rather than a fresh perspective.
Hoffman’s presence offers a glint of gravitas, but Roher and Robert Ramsey’s script sticks to predictable beats. The romance between Niki and Ruthie has moments, yet it never convincingly reframes neurodivergence or breaks away from the old guard of “disabled” protagonists in genre cinema.
On the sonic side, the sound design aims to mirror Niki’s world, but too often it becomes muffled or inconsistent, making hyperacusis feel like a gimmick instead of a window into perception. The film’s first heist sequence has some spark, but repetition drains its energy as the plot staggers toward a conventional finale.
Bottom line: despite a few bright notes, Tuner is a misfire. It traffics in potential that never fully materializes, leaving a discordant impression rather than a bold, new chord in the savant-thriller repertoire.
Source: Original article
