Dallas Film Now.

In Daniel Roher’s new film Tuner, flirtation comes when a man (Leo Woodall) pitch-perfectly identifies the keys a musical student (Havana Rose Liu) is playing after tuning her piano. It’s not so much a meet-cute, but a refreshing introduction between a man and a woman that’ll grow into something greater over time. It’s just one of the unique little scenes in a film that mixes tactile chemistry as if treading the sweet rom-com waters before digressing into the mechanics of a thriller. It does that genre pretty well also.

But before we reach the more tense portions of Tuner, it’s helpful to set up the stakes that propels Niki (Woodall) into a world of safe-cracking and audial terror.

Working with his uncle (the always professional Dustin Hoffman), Niki spends his days tuning pianos for the New York wealthy. Born with a hearing disability known as hyperacusis, where even the lightest sound is amplified, it’s a curse and a blessing for Niki as he’s able to tune instruments perfectly.

Outside of that soft-keyed focus, ear covers are required to protect himself from the pounding world of the everyday where even the rev of a motorcycle in traffic is a highly disturbing effect. And as mentioned above, the pain is balanced out by small benefits such as the one that leads to a romance with pianist Ruthie (Rose Liu) after he fixes her piano not once, but twice when water leaks onto it from her neighbor’s upstairs apartment.

However, just when things seem to be going well for Niki, financial stress creeps in when an unexpected illness strikes his beloved uncle and Niki simultaneously stumbles into the racket of a security company that conveniently secures, and then manipulates, their wealthy client’s possessions. Seemingly backed into a corner, Niki’s special ability to quickly break into a safe as if he’s in a 1950’s Sterling Hayden crime film- stethoscope and all- becomes a coveted skill for Uri (Lior Raz in a menacing turn) and his gang of thieves. But it’s not long before these moonlighting escapades begins to have serious personal consequences.

Conscience begins to creep in for Niki, and his relationship with Ruthie- herself battling the pressures of a possible internship with a renowned composer (Jean Reno)- soon becomes a point of dangerous leverage for Uri when his star employee wants to walk away.

How Niki navigates his landmined new life is part of the fun of Tuner. Even though it does follow a formulaic set of events, Roher’s direction is tight. There’s a third act that limps through a few too many coincidences in search of a deep moral reckoning, but Woodall and Rose Liu are tremendous, and it’s their unforced relationship that posits Tuner as a thriller with real stakes. Without rooting for them to survive and thrive, all the sweaty, tense scenes of safe-cracking and one well executed standoff off between some very bad people in a cluttered apartment, the film would be just another low-key heist effort. Instead, it’s a solid and entertaining film that shows a few new aspects of the genre while proving Woodall and Rose Liu’s deserved breakout status.

Tuner will open in Early Access screenings beginning Sunday May 17th before opening wider in the Dallas/Fort Worth area beginning May 21st.