‘Tuner’ Review: Dustin Hoffman and Leo Woodall Fix Pianos in an Offbeat Indie That’s Far Better Than It Must Sound

Dustin Hoffman and Leo Woodall make quite the pair in “Tuner.” Hoffman’s character, veteran piano technician Harry Horowitz, is losing his hearing, while his people-shy apprentice (played by “White Lotus” breakout Woodall) has a condition called hyperacusis, which obliges Niki to wear earplugs at all times. Even the slightest sounds bother him, but despite that, this pair are the best piano tuners in town.

“It’s not about hearing. It’s about feeling,” Harry explains, and the same goes for Daniel Roher’s pitch-perfect indie drama, which cleverly plays our emotions without resorting to cheap manipulation. (Hearing certainly helps, however, since you’d otherwise miss out on some excellent original music by Marius de Vries.) You might recognize Roher as the Oscar-winning director of “Navalny,” although his genre-straddling first narrative feature couldn’t be more different.

A laid-back rom-com crossed with a low-key crime thriller, combined with something more serious — unafraid to ask existential questions about overcoming a handicap that directly impacts one’s art — “Tuner” feels like the discovery of the Telluride Film Festival, where it world-premiered without a distributor in place. Roher’s likable debut feels more like a throwback to well-written, character-driven ’90s dramas like “Good Will Hunting” and “Shine,” or last year’s “Thelma” (which proves the endangered category ain’t dead yet).

“Tuner” opens with business as usual, as Harry and Niki make the rounds, calibrating personal pianos for rich New Yorkers. Most of their clients never play, treating their instruments like high-end furniture — though the pianos need tuning regardless (just one of a dozen intriguing facts about their overlooked profession). It’s a highly specialized skill, but that doesn’t stop customers from asking these musical repair men to fix a toilet or reset the router now and then.

The movie’s opening minutes give us a taste of such humiliations, letting Harry (who has a big mouth and an even bigger personality) suck up most of the oxygen. Niki indulges him, looking up to Harry and his devoted wife Marla (Tovah Feldshuh) like they were his own parents. He’s a good kid who discovers almost by accident that his hearing condition has an upside: His ears are so sensitive, he manages to open the portable safe to which Harry forgot the combination.

On another job in an extravagant mansion, he’s disturbed by a loud noise upstairs. When Niki snoops around to investigate, he finds three guys with foreign accents trying to force their way into a safe. Their leader, Uri (Lior Raz), claims he handles security for the same client who handled Niki, and the guileless young man takes them at their word, even though it seems clear to us that they’re stealing.

Uri leaves Niki a tip and suggests that there’s more easy money to be had, if he will just lend them his ears — an irresistible financial offer, considering Harry’s sky-high hospital bills. There’s something a little too convenient about this arrangement, and audiences would be right to be wary. But there’s not much else going on in Niki’s life, until he discovers Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), a talented music composition student who’s living the dream Niki once held (Henry keeps referring to him as the best piano player he ever heard).

Hoffman isn’t in the movie as much as you might like, but when he’s on screen, a script already brimming with warmth and humor (which Roher co-wrote with Robert Ramsay) foams over in the best possible way. Take the scene where the jazz-loving codger attempts to play matchmaker between Niki and Ruthie, not realizing they’ve already met, when Niki tuned the conservancy’s concert piano, and she tested his pitch — a sexy scene where Harry’s strong-silent-type assistant reveals his true skills. It’s in that moment that Woodall’s star potential seems clear, as he rattles off notes like his “Rain Man” co-star.

As the attraction between Niki and Ruthie blossoms, his involvement with the so-called security team (who are routinely stealing from their employers) gets increasingly complicated. Although he’s a sweet guy, Niki makes some pretty boneheaded decisions, which could prove dangerous if and when he decides to bow out of raiding rich people’s houses. The “Tuner” script is expertly structured in the way it sets up certain elements and then pays them off later, like Niki’s reluctance to play the piano and the challenge it will pose if Ruthie gets selected to apprentice for a big-time composer (Jean Reno in one of the movie’s well-chosen cameos).

The challenge for “Tuner,” commercially at least, is that it’s a little too mainstream for art-house audiences, who might conceivably predict its more satisfying twists. At the same time, it may prove too specialized for the megaplex set, even if it’s broadly appealing enough to satisfy that crowd. There’s something about Niki’s profession that — though it lends itself to fun facts and poetic monologues about the impossibility of perfection — strikes folks as niche. Then again, if there’s one person who can make it sound great, that would be a tuner.